From series raises and trend predictions, to stripped back founder interviews and lockdown pivots, read the headlines, business break-throughs and perspectives from the people inside Huckletree.

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<h3>Some say we&rsquo;re at a crossroads when it comes to the future of Earth. We disagree. There&rsquo;s only one road to take - a road paved with action, a road that begins in our cities.</h3>
And we can&rsquo;t take that road alone, which is why <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit" rel="follow">Earthrise Summit</a> is returning for September 2022 with a mission to drive collective action toward a more sustainable urban future. And this year, it&rsquo;s going global - with speakers addressing a virtual audience from stages in London, New York, LA, Berlin, Dublin, and Manchester.
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55% of the world's population are now living in urban areas and <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html">The UN predicts</a> this number to rise to 68% by 2050. Our cities are progressively defining the future of our planet and we need to innovate - fast. And it begs the urgent question: how do we rethink our cities to maximise sustainable impact on a global scale? How do we plan our urban landscapes to increase equity for marginalised communities? How do we maintain a sense of community within our cities, even at the rate they&rsquo;re scaling?
It's time to pave a new, more sustainable and equitable direction for how we live, move, work, and play. A direction that accounts for everyone - whether you live at the city&rsquo;s centre, or on the urban margins, whether the city is part of your daily work life or a place rarely encountered - the future of the city affects us all.
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"Urbanisation is happening, and it's happening fast. We're choosing to focus Earthrise Summit on Urban Futures in 2022, as a key place for unlocking a more sustainable future. What happens in the city doesn't stay in the city. We have to address that." - Patrick Keogh, Programmes Director.
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Launched in 2021, Earthrise Summit brought together highlight speakers like activist and model Lily Cole, and National Geographic photographer and film director, Jimmy Chin. This year, the summit will gather 50 speakers, each visionaries for how we build these cities of the future, including:
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<a href="https://gehlpeople.com/" rel="follow">Jan Gehl | World-renowned Architect and Urban Designer</a> whose life work has centred around reorienting our cities for pedestrians and cyclists. Jan has transformed the very fabric of urban spaces worldwide and we can&rsquo;t wait to welcome him to the stage.
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<a href="http://www.tiakansara.com/" rel="follow">Tia Kansara | CEO &amp; Founder of Replenish Earth and Special Advisor, UN Climate Change</a> is dedicated to giving guidance to help governments, companies and individuals to make fulfilling commitments that benefit the world around us. Through her work, she empowers policymakers and companies on how to build smarter cities that replenish Earth, and harness local wisdom and global expertise.
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<a href="https://davidchipperfield.com/" rel="follow">David Chipperfield | World-renowned architect</a> studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London before founding his own practice in 1985. He has built a design methodology that is now used across four offices in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai. In his book&nbsp;On Planning &ndash; A Thought Experiment (2018), David explores and theorises the urban qualities of contemporary urban developments.
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<a href="https://liamyoung.org/" rel="follow">Liam Young | Speculative Architect</a> brings his provocative edge and bold idea <a href="https://liamyoung.org/projects/planet-city" rel="follow">Planet City</a> to Earthrise. This city, imagined in the future is home to the world&rsquo;s entire population of 10,157,030,257 people and features 121,307 km&sup2; of hydroelectric canals, 2,357 algae farms, and hosts 2,555 cultural festivals and holidays. His visions are quite something.
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<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudhanshusarronwala/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2F&amp;originalSubdomain=ch" rel="follow">Sudhanshu Sarronwala | Chief Impact Advisor, Infarm</a> is a strategic visionary who has predicted and helped further systemic change and positions organisations to take advantage of that change. He recently joined <a href="https://www.infarm.com/" rel="follow">Infarm</a>, is a global network of urban farms that are closer to our communities and kinder to our environment. They grow a diverse range of top-quality produce all year round in the heart of urban environments.
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<a href="http://www.saskiasassen.com/" rel="follow">Saskia Sassen | Dutch-American sociologist</a> is noted for her analyses of globalization and international human migration. She is Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and Centennial visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. Sassen coined the term global city.
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Spanning a full day as we chase the Sun from Berlin to LA, discussions will be curated around topics such as How can we humanise our cities?, Future City Scapes: designing a brighter, more sustainable future, Urban farming: can cities provide a different path for feeding ourselves?, What can cities teach us about the climate crisis?, and so much more.
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&ldquo;The solutions to climate change fundamentally begin and end in our cities. We recognise a responsibility as an innovation ecosystem to unite our powerful network to drive real and meaningful impact - the Earthrise mission was born from this. With this summit, we&rsquo;re uniting the world&rsquo;s most action-led thinkers to inspire change towards a more sustainable future, for us and generations to come.&rdquo;&nbsp;Gabriela Hersham, Co-founder and CEO
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<h4><a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/earthrise-summit-2022-tickets-308602908607?aff=BlogPosts" rel="follow">Get your ticket for &pound;24</a> and join the discussion around how we take the road towards a brighter, more sustainable, more equitable urban future.</h4>

Earthrise Summit returns for 2022

Earthrise Summit Announcement 22

We&rsquo;re delighted to announce a partnership with Regent&rsquo;s University London, to create a first for Huckletree - scholarships. This collaboration will see us nurturing the bravest, next-gen talent from the International Business Programme. This partnership is of meaningful significance as our very own co-founder and CEO Gabriela Hersham is alumni of this very programme.
&ldquo;The lessons I learned through the International Business Programme at Regent&rsquo;s were foundational in how I set up Huckletree in the early days, and even now. I still revisit the concepts that we debated in the classroom&rdquo; - Gabriela Hersham
These scholarships are going to be fundamental to gaining practical, real-world experiences at the very heart of not only an exciting high-growth business but also one founded by alumni of their programme (talk about motivating?!). We&rsquo;re excited to be bringing on young talent and tapping into their ideas on visioning our future, and are fully committed to creating the most enriching scholarships they could ever dream of.
&ldquo;Alongside this hands-on practical experience that this scholarship will offer, it will provide intangibles that are so necessary in business today, such as personal leadership, the value of social capital at work and cultivating a growth market.&rdquo; - Gabriela Hersham
There&rsquo;s endless potential in this partnership and we&rsquo;re looking forward to exploring beyond scholarships - be it in collaborative programmes, events, or research projects. The blending of academia and innovation is powerful, watch this space.
Interested to find out more about how you can partner with Huckletree? <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/workspace-enquire" rel="follow">Get in touch.</a>

Where academia and innovation collide: Huckletree x Regent's

Huckletree x Regents 

The UN predicts that the world&rsquo;s urban population will increase from 55% to 68% by 2050. With urbanisation accelerating at this pace, innovation within our cityscapes is more important than ever before. Which is why we&rsquo;re curating this year&rsquo;s Alpha Accelerator, a programme open only to founders from underrepresented backgrounds, around Urban Futures.
After a competitive few weeks of pitching, the startups that make up the 9th cohort of the Alpha Accelerator have been decided. And what a cohort they are.
These startups are dedicated to creating more equitable cities and to making mobility more inclusive. They&rsquo;re innovating algorithms that make sustainable property development just that bit easier. They&rsquo;re creating greener, more efficient solutions to the challenges we face in urban spaces. These startups, fundamentally, are paving the future of our cities.
<h3>OneCity</h3>
<a href="https://onecity.dev/">OneCity</a>&nbsp;is on a mission to create more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities by helping developers to find and evaluate the best investments that are aligned with the latest city plans. They use data and analytics to coordinate urban development and co-create equitable towns and cities.
Joining Alpha: Cofounders Yuriy Milevskiy (business founder, experienced in: urban planning and property development), and Miriam Maina (urban planner, researcher and geoinformatics expert).

<h3>&ldquo;We are excited to meet a network that has coalesced specifically around the Urban Futures theme. It is really important to us to find investors that understand our problem and impact. The intensity of Alpha Urban Futures is really attractive for us because we think the market is ripe for our solution and we want to move fast this year.&rdquo; - Miriam M. Maina. Co-founder of OneCity</h3>


<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/gc7ZBpN3SfSoV4vb2QRO" alt="miriam-m-maina-co-founder-oneCity" />
Miriam M. Maina. Co-founder of OneCity
<h3></h3>
<h3>Mykor</h3>
<a href="https://www.mykor.co.uk/">Mykor</a>&nbsp;is a biotechnology and advanced materials company developing sustainable materials for the construction industry. The company&rsquo;s proprietary custom-engineered materials are sustainable, highly-performative and carbon-negative.
Joining Alpha: Cofounders Valentina Dipietro (award-winning materials designer, lecturer, and former researcher at Green Lab and Kyoto Design Lab), and Olivia Page (internationally-renowned architect and project manager).

<h3>MOSA</h3>
<a href="https://www.mosa.to/">MOSA</a>&nbsp;is building a smart parking and service platform for micro-mobility. They use patent-pending, low-cost IoT technology (MOSA lock) to turn conventional parking racks into smart and safe parking spaces at scale.
Joining Alpha: Cofounders Josh Liu (previously Foxconn) and Simon Laumet (trained mechanic and transport and industrial design academic).

<h3>&ldquo;We have a huge ambition to build the next generation of micro-mobility infrastructure and facilitate healthy and convenient means of travel within zero-emission cities. We're excited to work with Huckletree Alpha and build the foundation of our venture.&rdquo; - Josh Liu, Co-founder of Mosa</h3>


<h3>CityMaas</h3>
<a href="https://www.citymaas.io/">CityMaaS</a>&nbsp;is making the world accessible online and offline, using two streams of technology, digital accessibility tools and a global mobility map for physical spaces.
Joining Alpha: Founder Rene Perkins CA MSc BA(Hon) - Rene has been named one of the top 50 BAME founders under 50 by Techround and is a serial entrepreneur.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/QqNGRHcgQmvNfLwtOo3O" alt="rene-perkins-founder-and-ceo-citymaas" />
Rene Perkins, Founder and CEO of CityMaas
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<h3>Key Home</h3>
<a href="https://www.keyhome.io/">Key Home</a>&nbsp;identifies retrofit upgrades to reduce a home&rsquo;s energy demand, making homes cosier to live in and cheaper and more efficient to run. To overcome convenience, cost and industry barriers - the MVP product will evolve to bundle assessment, financing, installation and monitoring of retrofit upgrades.
Joining Alpha: Cofounders Kirsty Kenney (Urban Geography academic and previously Smart Cities Consulting group at Accenture), and Reinier Zeldenrust (Mphil in Environmental Design and Architecture, previously: Atelier Ten and Foster + Partners).
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/1XLFy6h6SI2By08uAN80" alt="kirsty-kenney" />
Kirsty Kenney, Co-founder of KeyHome
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<h3>Firstplanit</h3>
<a href="http://www.firstplanit.com/">Firstplanit</a>&nbsp;is a GreenTech digital platform with patent-pending algorithms to make sustainable building product choices easy, cheap and personal for building teams.
Joining Alpha: Founder Ankita Dwivedi who has previously led architecture, design and sustainability teams for top Fortune 100 businesses across the globe
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/4o554r4jRSGCeJcbj5X8" alt="ankita-dwivedi" />
Ankita Dwivedi, founder of Firstplanit


So, there they are. Told you they were an impressive bunch.
Over the next 12 weeks, these startups will be sprinting their way through everything from founder fundamentals to pitch practise, all with the ambition of supercharging their journey to raising their first seed round. We&rsquo;ve called on the best of the best of workshop hosts, mentors, investors, and serial entrepreneurs to support them. To name just a few: Lucy Yu (Centre for Net-Zero), Justin Landsberger (Deliveroo), Andy Davis (angel investor), and Ella Goldner (Zinc VC).
Each startup will be pitching their ideas to thousands of people across the globe at the Earthrise Sustainability Summit, returning this May for its second year (more on that next week!) - <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit">register your interest</a> to be the first in the know.
You can also find a programme of Alpha Accelerator firesides that are open to everyone on our <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/events">upcoming events page</a>. So, get your pens at the ready - with names like Lugano Kapembwa (Loop Cycle) on the programme, you&rsquo;re bound to learn a thing or two.
Don&rsquo;t forget to follow us on socials to stay in the loop with the Alpha cohort &gt;&gt; <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/huckletree/">LinkedIn</a> &gt;&gt; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/huckletree/">Instagram</a> &gt;&gt; <a href="https://twitter.com/huckletree">Twitter</a>.

Just landed: Alpha 9

Alpha cohort 9 announced 

<h3 style="text-align: center;">DeepTech is simply trying to prove the previously unprovable. It combines science with engineering and entrepreneurship, and solves some of the most complex problems facing humanity as a result.</h3>
DeepTech has a PR problem. Unlike FoodTech, HealthTech, ParentTech et al, DeepTech doesn&rsquo;t exactly do what it says on the tin. What&rsquo;s more, it faces issues in explaining why it&rsquo;s meaningful when it involves things like quantum computing and flying cars (yep, you read that right), which sound too much like abstract science fiction for many. Critics say it&rsquo;s just innovation for the sake of innovation (sending Jeff Bezos to space for 10 minutes, anyone?), but at its most basic, DeepTech is simply trying to prove the previously unprovable. DeepTech combines science with engineering and entrepreneurship, and solves some of the most complex problems facing humanity as a result. Few can refute DeepTech&rsquo;s importance when they learn it led to the creation of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine, the first vaccine in the world to use an mRNA platform. So, we&rsquo;re doing a DeepTech deep dive and exploring some of the companies in this sector who are, quite literally, changing the world.
<h3>Energy and Emissions</h3>
97% of DeepTech ventures contribute to at least one of the UN&rsquo;s sustainable development goals.
Danish nuclear energy pioneers, <a href="https://www.seaborg.com/">Seaborg</a>, are taking a completely fresh approach with the hope of revolutionising the existing market. The reactors they hope to build are not only safer, more sustainable and more cost-effective than conventional nuclear reactors, but they will be mounted on boats so they can move to where the need is - a stable energy source to supplement variable sources such as wind and solar. Not only will these power barges produce significant amounts of electricity but useful bi-products include desalinated seawater, carbon-neutral hydrogen, synthetic fuels and fertilisers. Win, win, and win again.
UK DeepTech startup, <a href="https://www.newmotionlabs.com/">New Motion Labs</a>, secured &pound;750k of funding from the Green Angel Syndicate in March 2022. The company has redesigned roller chains, which have remained largely unchanged for 100 years, to reduce friction and therefore improve performance and lengthen lifespan by up to five times. These chains are being used in the eCargo bikes, which are increasingly becoming the transport mode of choice for last-mile deliveries in urban centres. These bikes are nearly twice as fast as van delivery and could save up to 37 million tonnes of CO2 across the UK. Small change, big impact.
(FYI our sustainability summit, <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit">Earthrise</a>, is back for 2022 - 50 speakers spread across five global hubs exploring four themes critical to climate change. Interested in attending? <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/earthrise-register-interest">Register here</a>.)
<h3>Agriculture</h3>
Food insecurity is up there among the biggest issues facing humanity today. How do we support a growing global population using diminishing quantities of farmland in a sustainable way? As with most things, there isn&rsquo;t one single solution but a huge variety of solutions that must work together.
Salisbury-based DeepTech startup, <a href="https://www.phytoformlabs.com/">Phytoform Labs</a>, secured $5.7M in Seed funding in December 2021 to scale up its AI-based technology, which hopes to fix the issue of crop resilience in a world of climate change. They&rsquo;re using a combination of AI and genome editing technology to create crops that will increase yield, while lowering the environmental impact of agriculture. With scientific studies showing that pests will consume up to 25% more wheat, rice and maize across the globe for each single degree rise in climate temperature, this kind of DeepTech venture is sorely needed.
77% of our planet&rsquo;s agricultural space is dedicated to producing meat, which only comprises 18% of our calorie intake. You don&rsquo;t need to be a maths whizz to work out those stats don&rsquo;t stack up. Enter <a href="https://www.ivy.farm/">Ivy Farm Technologies</a>, which secured $20M in seed funding in December 2021 with the aim of becoming the UK&rsquo;s first commercial producer of lab-grown meats, with cultured sausages scheduled to be on shelves by 2023. This production process uses less space, no antibiotics or genetic modification and is kinder to animals, which means it won&rsquo;t be long before we can all scoff as many guilt-free sausages as we like. Roll on 2023.
<h3>Medicine &amp; Health</h3>
DeepTech is quickly becoming the disruptor of the MedTech industry, which is notorious for moving at a glacial pace.
Three words: minimal access surgery. Essentially, using tiny incisions to complete surgical procedures. While widely considered a better way of operating for both patients and surgeons, it&rsquo;s not as widespread as you&rsquo;d think. Cambridge-based <a href="https://cmrsurgical.com/">CMR Surgical</a> was founded in 2015 to bring minimal access surgery to a far greater number of patients with their surgical robotics product, Versius. The device not only enables greater precision for surgeons and less invasive procedures for patients, but it collects a wealth of data to help medical professionals continually optimise and improve their performance. Having secured nearly &pound;975M in funding across five rounds, most recently in June 2021, CMR Surgical is at the very forefront of the advancement of medicine through DeepTech.
Robotics are also front and centre of this next DeepTech pioneer: <a href="https://openbionics.com/en/">Open Bionics</a>. The Bristol-based outfit, founded in 2014, manufactures low-cost 3D-printed bionic arms. Each prosthesis is custom-built to fit the wearer&rsquo;s arm perfectly using 3D scanning and, what&rsquo;s more, they offer a range of amazingly-designed covers for kids, featuring the Marvel Superheroes, Star Wars and Disney&rsquo;s Frozen, so children can turn their arm difference into their very own superpower. Every person who wears an Open Bionics arm is part of the Bionic Squad; this business isn&rsquo;t just about tech, it&rsquo;s about community, inclusion and making the world a better place, all of which resonate with us here at Huckletree.
DeepTech has been slower to take off compared to other tech sectors, because of its aforementioned PR issues, but also because it&rsquo;s inherently riskier - the complexity of the issues tackled makes ventures more liable to failure and often harder to commercialise. However, 2020 saw European investments into the sector surpass &euro;10B and that is set to rise significantly in 2022 and beyond, so perhaps this sleeping giant is finally ready to rise from the deep and take on the world.

In defence of DeepTech: so much more than flying cars and sending billionaires to space

deeptech-deep-dive

<h3>When our <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/reports">Future Insights: Future Living report</a> highlighted ParentTech as a sector boasting gender equality amongst founders, we were immediately intrigued. After experiencing their own challenges in motherhood, many women with visionary ideas have turned to tech to create solutions. In this blog, we&rsquo;re going to explore the realm of ParentTech, showcasing both the areas of innovation and some of the daring women making parenting a smoother ride.</h3>
ParentTech refers to technology designed to ease the challenges of parenthood. From tech-driven fertility clinics and baby monitoring wearables to platforms to share parenting experiences and services for finding childcare and family-friendly events, more than 150 high-growth ParentTech companies are operating in the UK. So far, over &pound;350m has been invested into the sector, with more than &pound;270m of this total coming since the start of 2018. ParentTech is clearly a sector in its infancy (pun fully intended) so watch this space for much more to come.
We highlight four areas of ParentTech below&mdash; fertility; wellbeing and care; groups and activities; and childcare and safety&mdash;via some of London&rsquo;s most ambitious equity-raising startups.
<h3>Fertility</h3>
With fertility rates reaching a record low in 2020 (the total fertility rate (TFR) decreased to 1.58 children per woman, according to <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/birthsummarytablesenglandandwales/2020">ONS</a>), innovation in this space is fundamental. A number of new companies are innovating products to support couples trying to conceive.
Co-Founded by Parisian entrepreneur, Caroline Noublanche, <a href="https://www.apricity.life/">Apricity</a> is the world&rsquo;s first virtual fertility clinic combining AI fertility research with personalised human care to maximise chances of IVF success. They have successfully raised &pound;5.35m of equity from French fund, <a href="https://www.kametventures.com/">Kamet Ventures</a>. Their holistic offering has developed to extend to proprietary algorithms to fully personalise treatment - including embryo selection, follicle scan analysis, and hormone optimisation.
Co-founded by FemTech entrepreneur, Tess Cosad, <a href="https://beafertility.com/">Béa Fertility</a> has created the first intracervical insemination kit designed for home use. They secured &pound;800k of equity investment and &pound;279k of Innovate UK grant funding for their at-home fertility treatment kits before its launch to consumers this year.
<h3>Wellbeing and care</h3>
Technology for the wellbeing of babies and parents is undergoing rapid innovation.
Co-founded by Sophie Baron, seed-stage business, <a href="https://mamamadefood.com/">Mamamade</a>, has raised &pound;261k of equity funding to grow its organic and healthy baby food subscription service. We&rsquo;re huge fans of Mamamade at Huckletree. Anything that creates more time for &ldquo;mamapreneurs&rdquo; to innovate is a big yes from us. Plus, their food looks genuinely delicious (even from a fully-grown adult&rsquo;s perspective).
Founded by Tania Boler, FemTech firm, <a href="https://www.elvie.com/en-gb/">Elvie</a>, sure is pumping up some hype in the breastfeeding space (you absolutely cannot stop us with the puns today). Elvie attended accelerators Future Fifty and Upscale, secured equity worth &pound;108m, and has gained traction with breastfeeding mothers, offering an electric breast pump that is silent, lightweight and discreet. Elvie has also appeared on 11 high-growth lists since 2017. One to watch, for sure.
<h3>Groups and activities</h3>
Support networks are fundamental when navigating parenthood. Parents want to meet other parents.
Meeting this need is the <a href="https://www.peanut-app.io/">Peanut app</a>. Founded by Michelle Kennedy, Peanut is a network for meeting women in a similar life stage such as pregnancy or motherhood. Backed by &pound;16.6m of investment, the app is on a mission to ensure no woman has to navigate the challenges of motherhood alone.
The popularity of the female-founded &lsquo;mum app&rsquo; has also been made evident by Mush, which secured &pound;3.18m of equity and attended the NHS Innovation Accelerator before being acquired by Mumsnet in 2021. Shameless plug: Mush was co-founded by Huckletree member Sarah Hesz, who is a bit of a powerhouse in the ParentTech space. Not only is she also CCO of babysitting app <a href="https://joinbubble.com/">Bubble</a>, she is also a key spokesperson for working mums and a thought leader in issues around the gender pay gap. <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/katie_massie_taylor_sarah_hesz_welcome_to_the_motherhood">Watch her TEDxNHS Talk</a>.
Anyone who&rsquo;s ever had to entertain a toddler for a prolonged time will understand the need for an app that recommends tried and tested activities. Founded by Isabelle Marie Delmas, ParentTech app <a href="https://kinfoapp.com/parents/">Kinfo</a> allows parents to share recommendations and reviews with other parents and has so far raised two seed-stage equity rounds.
<h3>Childcare and safety</h3>
Helping to find childcare is a busy area for ParentTech innovators, with <a href="https://www.tiney.co/">tiney</a>, <a href="https://hinanny.co.uk/">HiNanny</a>, <a href="https://www.wearefetching.com/">We Are Fetching</a>, and <a href="https://www.kidsitter.co.uk/">KidSitter</a> representing some of London&rsquo;s equity-backed childcare startups.
Founded by Rachel Beech, seed-stage startup <a href="https://www.wearefetching.com/">We Are Fetching</a> has raised over 100k since their inception. Their purpose? To help parents to share the juggle of the school run with trusted friends using their Fetching app. To maximise security, We Are Fetching partner with schools and all of their users are ID verified to ensure that people are who they say they are.

So there you have it. A rundown of some of the incredible ideas and women entrepreneurs pioneering the ParentTech sector. And, with the space still very much in its early stages, we can&rsquo;t wait to see what the future holds. Let&rsquo;s collectively raise a breast pump or milk bottle in honour of the women making parenting just that little bit easier.

ParentTech - a sector pioneered by women, born from the challenges of parenthood 

ParentTech-sector-pioneered-by-women 

<h3>7 unicorns, 10 IPO&rsquo;ed and 20 companies on the trajectory to going public among the international AgriFoodTech companies featured in the 2021 FoodTech 500.</h3>
Huckletree partners <a href="https://forwardfooding.com/">Forward Fooding</a> have launched the latest edition of the <a href="https://forwardfooding.com/foodtech500/">FoodTech 500</a>, the Fortune 500 of the AgriFoodTech world. This comes ahead of their London launch at Huckletree West on the 16th of March (<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ldn-launch-event-unveiling-the-official-2021-foodtech-500-tickets-231526671507">join us!</a>).
After sifting through over 2,250 applications, Forward Fooding has compiled and ranked the hottest scaleups and startups making their mark on AgriFoodTech innovation. Spanning 47 countries, this international list features everything from very early-stage startups, to businesses that have IPO&rsquo;ed.
When it comes to investments, they cumulatively raised $9.6 billion in funding over time and among them can be found 10 publicly-traded FoodTech companies as well as 7 unicorns. 2021 marks a record-breaking year for AgriFoodTech and this year&rsquo;s list reflects this investment trend with $50.4B invested in 2021 globally, representing a +67% increase since 2020, and a +55.3% CAGR between 2017 and 2021.
Forward Fooding went way beyond these insights and have even predicted which of the FoodTech 500 companies will go public in the next 12 months. They based these predictions on a number of common traits of publicly traded companies.
Three main indicators were pinpointed, based on proprietary financial data collected on over 7,000 international AgriFoodTech companies since 2011 by Forward Fooding and by deep-diving into the data related to a selection of over 30 publicly-traded International FoodTech companies. Through the analysis of the longevity of companies before IPO&rsquo;ing, the velocity between funding rounds and their latest funding round it was then possible to identify 8 companies among the 2021 FoodTech 500 pack that seem to be on the path to file their IPOs within the next 12 months.
These findings are also confirmed by the fact that one of the above-mentioned companies has already filed for IPO in October 2021 and another 3 businesses have already joined the &lsquo;Unicorn&rsquo; club. In addition, Forward Fooding has taken a step further to apply the same benchmarks over the rest of the 2021 FoodTech 500 list and has identified another 13 front-runner companies on the trajectory to file their IPOs within the next 24 months.
Catalysing the attention on the global AgriFoodTech entrepreneurial ecosystem, one of the most impactful industries in terms of bettering our planet, is what Forward Fooding work is all about. In this scope, the FoodTech 500's ultimate goal is to build a powerful platform providing global exposure to some of the most promising startup and scaleup companies around the world. While raising awareness and showcasing their breakthrough innovations, it facilitates connections between these companies, the global food industry and the international investor community.
Forward Fooding&rsquo;s founder &amp; CEO, Alessio D&rsquo;Antino commenting on this year&rsquo;s edition:
&ldquo;We created the FoodTech 500 in 2019 to showcase the &lsquo;underdogs&rsquo; of AgriFoodTech and shine a spotlight on the leading global innovators, from farm to fork, who are creating impactful solutions to enhance our food systems. Three years into the making, as we followed over 70+ IPOs of companies in foodtech, we saw the industry expanding remarkably. This year&rsquo;s list, featuring 10 publicly-listed companies, 7 unicorns and another 20 businesses on the trajectory to join this pack, represents for us the testament that the entrepreneurial talent behind the global FoodTech industry is capable of doing great business - while, of course, doing good to the planet.&rdquo;
The FoodTech 500 initiative is sponsored by <a href="https://www.neom.com/en-us">NEOM</a>, one of the most exciting and visionary urban projects on the planet, located in the North West Region of Saudi Arabia near the Red Sea, offering a glimpse of what the future will look like and <a href="https://dolesunshine.com/">Dole Sunshine Company</a>, a world leader in delivering high-quality fresh and packaged fruit with positive impact on people, planet and prosperity.
We&rsquo;re excited to be partnered with Forward Fooding as they will be powering up their <a href="https://hub.forwardfooding.com/">London FoodTech innovation hub</a>, based at <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/hubs/west">Huckletree West</a> in White City since 2018.
The Hub is a place for AgriFoodTech startups and F&amp;B corporates to join as members and have access to the best innovation ecosystem, connect with relevant stakeholders via FoodTech focused events, and gather trends and insights about one of the fastest-growing and most impactful sectors globally, with the objective of generating meaningful connections across the ecosystem to foster food innovation locally and globally.
Currently based at the FoodTech hub is a mix of startups and scaling businesses including B-Corp business <a href="https://www.thecollectivedairy.com/">The Collective Dairy</a>, sustainable insect-based pet food <a href="https://www.beobia.com/">Beobia</a>, and gelato creators <a href="https://www.remeogelato.com/">Remeo</a>.
Join us on the 16th of March from 6 - 7.30pm to hear more about the FoodTech 500 list and to meet some of the UK innovators that made it including <a href="https://press-london.com/">PRESS</a>, <a href="https://kafoodle.com/">Kafoodle</a>, and <a href="https://www.eaglegenomics.com/">Eagle Genomics</a>. Plus, a fireside chat on &ldquo;What&rsquo;s cooking in the Global Tech ecosystem&rdquo; with Russ Shaw CBE, founder of <a href="https://www.techlondonadvocates.org.uk/">Tech London Advocates</a> &amp; <a href="https://www.globaltechadvocates.org/">Global Tech Advocates.</a>
<a href="https://forwardfooding.com/foodtech500/">Discover the FoodTech 500 list.</a>
<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ldn-launch-event-unveiling-the-official-2021-foodtech-500-tickets-231526671507">Sign up for the event.</a>

FoodTech 500 - The brands transforming the F&B landscape one IPO and Unicorn at a time 

Forward Fooding FoodTech 500

<h3>In the third of three reports in collaboration with Beauhurst, we focus on the New Media and Immersive Industries, including XR (Extended Reality) and The Future of Gaming.</h3>
We're looking at how brave new brands in these spheres are influencing the future of how we create and consume content, game, and immerse ourselves in the changing landscape of the online and digital spaces.
The evolution of the internet is gathering speed, which follows a new wave of approaches to content creation and digital creativity. As we hurtle towards the Metaverse and Web 3.0, we're taking a look at the new media brands, creative agencies and immersive tech companies that are rising to the challenge of making their mark on this brand new iteration of the internet.
With increasing accessibility around XR (Extended Reality) technology and the future of gaming looking progressively more immersive - the way we're reacting to digital content at scale is changing. From online publishing and social media to marketing and advertising technology, industries across the sector adapt and put their lens on this new reality.
The high-growth New Media and Immersive Tech sector houses 2,289 active companies. Almost three-quarters of these active companies are young, at seed or venture stage - a promising indication for the investment ecosystem. London is a hotspot for activity in the sector (1,175 active companies), with Brighton and Hove (51) showing themselves as a city to watch. Manchester (43), Glasgow (42), Bristol (41), and Edinburgh (41) are also generating New Media and Immersive Tech innovation. The industry has collectively raised &pound;4.3b of investment between 2011 and 2020. The space is also home to some of the UK's most innovative gaming and immersive tech brands, including software developer, Improbable, who achieved Unicorn status in 2017.
This report hones in on two sub-industries: XR (Extended Reality) and The Future of Gaming.
XR encompasses VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality). With 141 active high-growth companies, this space has sparked investor curiosity around the potential of the technology. Between the beginning of 2020 and the end of November 2021, the sector saw &pound;45.6m equity investment - 33% of the total funding received by the industry since 2011.
The Future of Gaming is an exciting sub-industry with 401 active high-growth companies, making it the dominant sub-space within New Media and Immersive Tech. Equity investment into this space has been plentiful, with high-growth companies attracting &pound;1.46b across 938 fundraising rounds since 2011. Gaming is also trending towards a more immersive experience for users, trailblazing a high-tech path for this generation of gamers. The gaming industry has also been praised for its ability to reap success outside of London, with companies in Edinburgh and Nottingham reaching high valuations.
Huckletree is built on the motto that &ldquo;No Mind is an Island.&rdquo; We believe you can't change the world alone, which is why we're on a mission to help the most innovative companies, from startups right the way through to MNEs, take leaps and do braver work together.
We're more committed than ever to creating the space and environment for teams to work, grow their ventures, collaborate and pioneer whatever comes next. Our Futures Hub in Huckletree White City is home to some of the UK's leading New Media and Immersive Tech companies.
The campus, located within the iconic White City Place development, is part of a bold new chapter in the rich creative history that sits at the centre of West London &mdash; an area already brimming with high-growth New Media and Immersive Tech companies. It's a dedicated haven for startups and global brands paving our future digital experience - how we game, create, consume, watch and move.
<h3>We hope this report is both engaging and informative, download your copy <a href="https://hs.huckletree.com/immersive-tech-report-download" style="color: #236fa1;">here.</a></h3>

Future Insights: The New Media & Immersive Tech Report

Future Insights: The New Media and Immersive Tech Report

<h2 style="text-align: center;">In this blog, we&rsquo;re taking a look at seven of the UK&rsquo;s seed to venture stage startups making an impact in the movement towards a smarter, more sustainable urban future.</h2>


<h3>The Tyre Collective</h3>
London, UK | Seed
One to watch in the CleanTech and Mobility space
Tyre dust. Have you ever considered it? Got to be honest, us neither. As The Tyre Collective put it: tyres are the stealthy pollutant you never thought about. Tyre wear is the second largest microplastic pollutant in our ocean and accounts for up to 50% of air particle emissions. The Tyre Collective have created a device that tackles this problem at the source. How? It&rsquo;s pretty genius. They discovered that rubber particles are charged when they come off tyres (kind of like when you rub a balloon on a jumper - it sticks!) and the device works in the same way, attracting and catching 60% of the particles that have worn off the tyre. They then work to close the loop by sending the particles off to become tyres again. These innovators are rightly gaining recognition, receiving over &pound;540k in grants in 2021. Watch this space.
<a href="https://www.thetyrecollective.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">More on The Tyre Collective</a>

<h3>Vertical Future</h3>
London, UK | Venture
One to watch in the vertical farming space
Vertical Future recently secured &pound;21m in what is said to be Europe&rsquo;s largest-ever Series A raise in the emerging vertical farming sector. This raise brought the valuation of the business to &pound;100m. Vertical farming produces crops on a series of stacked levels and has been promoted as a sustainable way of growing fruit and vegetables closer to consumption, without pesticides and using less water. Vertical Future develops and deploys vertical farming hardware and technology. It has a range of projects in Britain and overseas, including Ireland, Italy and Singapore. In the next few years, they plan to be doing this at an industrial scale. They're already in talks with several major British retail and logistics brands to further accelerate growth.
<a href="https://verticalfuture.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">More on Vertical Future</a>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/QnSYPnP1QROYk7xTZfII" alt="iStock-1324696495.jpg" width="755" height="503" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />
Vertical Farming (Basil plants developing under controlled LED lighting and CO2-infused air). Credit: <a href="https://www.istockphoto.com/portfolio/JohnnyGreig?mediatype=photography" style="color: #236fa1;">Johnny Greig</a>

<h3>Modulous</h3>
London, UK | Venture
One to watch in the PropTech space
With increasing global populations, a chronic housing shortage, and the world's fight towards Net Zero, PropTech innovation has never been of higher importance. Modulous are completely transforming the way homes are designed, procured and built. Their solutions include an automated digital design platform, incorporating a high performing and standardised kit of parts, and a fully integrated supply chain network. Their innovation can make a groundbreaking impact in the construction space, enabling zero carbon and zero waste design, and dramatically reducing construction time and costs. And, they have been recognised for their global potential to increase pace and scale in delivering affordable, sustainable homes. In 2021, global investment trio Blackhorn Ventures, CEMEX, and GroundBreak invested &pound;5m into the rising PropTech company.
<a href="https://www.modulous.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">More on Modulous</a>

<h3>Grid Smarter Cities</h3>
North East, UK | Venture
One to watch in smart mobility and logistics
Operating in the mobility, freight, and construction sectors, Grid Smarter Cities are on a mission to improve the lives of the people living in cities. Their innovation is enabling smarter, more cost-efficient services that result in positive social, economic and environmental outcomes, and sustainable revenues for the city (what a mission statement!). They recently collaborated with <a href="https://www.stantec.com/en" style="color: #236fa1;">Stantec</a> to launch <a href="https://gridsmartercities.com/stantec-report/" style="color: #236fa1;">new research</a> that uncovers kerbside management as a greener, smarter solution to managing London's growing freight delivery challenge. Recognised for their groundbreaking innovation in making our cities smarter, they&rsquo;ve received over &pound;2.5m in grants and &pound;3.3m in investment.
<a href="https://gridsmartercities.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">More on Grid Smarter Cities</a>

<h3>Angoka</h3>
Northern Ireland, UK | Venture | Data Security
One to watch in the smart city and smart mobility data security space
To have smart city and mobility solutions, we need data. Naturally, increased data capturing has sparked concerns around security. However, with the right tech in place, capturing smart data in our cities is nothing to be concerned about and is fundamental to creating the smart, sustainable, and efficient cities our future needs. Angoka is protecting communications for smart cities and mobility. Their hardware-based solutions safeguard critical machine-to-machine communication integrity and data provenance, creating trusted connections, even in untrustworthy networks. Angoka has received over &pound;1.7m in grants since its inception in 2019.
<a href="https://angoka.io/" style="color: #236fa1;">More on Angoka</a>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/1G2POhmoQ6KXk2FaW0L4" alt="roger-starnes-sr-VUuBpG5avLY-unsplash..." width="784" height="519" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />
Electric Vehicle charging point. Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@rstar50?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText" style="color: #236fa1;">Roger Starnes Sr</a>

<h3>Bonnet</h3>
London, UK | Seed
One to watch in electric vehicle innovation
Despite there being 200 x the amount of electric vehicles on the road since their introduction to the automotive space over a decade ago, charging them is still, well... a nightmare. In the global race to Net Zero, Bonnet is on a mission to revolutionise this. Their app provides electric vehicle users with access to reliable information on EV charging points with wide coverage across London. In their commitment to sustainability, they&rsquo;ve saved 12 tonnes of CO2 (equal to 600 trees absorbing CO2 for a whole year). And the &pound;920k of investment they received in 2021 is only set to supercharge their efforts further, enabling them to scale their specialist team and make a much-needed impact in the EV space.
<a href="https://www.joinbonnet.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">More on Bonnet</a>

<h3>Crate to Plate</h3>
London, UK | Seed
One to watch in the urban farming space
Crate to Plate is making a groundbreaking impact on our ability to grow tasty, sustainable, and high-nutrient greens right in the heart of the city. They harness state-of-the-art hydroponics technology, using purpose-built containers allowing them to fully control the farming conditions. Their soil-free, clean growing environment creates a wealth of sustainability benefits, including using 95% less water, year-round harvests, zero-mileage, and reduced wastage. Their shipping container farm at the Elephant Park regeneration project in Elephant and Castle will produce over 5 tonnes of fresh produce, including lettuce, rocket, kale, basil, parsley, coriander, and mint, which will be delivered to local cafes and food projects.
<a href="https://cratetoplate.farm/" style="color: #236fa1;">More on Crate to Plate</a>

Do you know a pre-seed startup making waves in smart city innovation? We&rsquo;re seeking the next generation of innovators re-thinking the future of our cities to join the ninth Alpha Accelerator. This programme supercharges the investment journeys of six startups with at least one underrepresented founder.
Alpha kicks off in April. Applications close at midnight on the 27th Feb. <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/alpha" style="color: #236fa1; text-decoration: underline;">Find out more.</a>

Seven smart city startups to watch in 2022

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Training and development budget is fundamental. Not only to the progress of the individual, but to the wider business, too. So when it&rsquo;s all-round beneficial, why do we still find it such an awkward thing to ask for?</h2>


In this blog, we will arm you with everything you need to land that development budget.
1. Identify the right course.
There are a lot of training and development courses out there, and it can be hard to cut through the noise and strike gold. It&rsquo;s essential to find a course that ticks the right boxes for your career progression and the business's objectives. At Huckletree, we curate our career accelerator, The Hundreds Club, around a specific domain. This way, the cohort get skills, intelligence, and technical know-how that&rsquo;s super relevant to the needs of their industry. So, definitely find a course that accommodates your industry/domain instead of a generalist course.
2. Create a case they can&rsquo;t say no to
Get together a comprehensive case for why this development training will enable you to make even more of an impact in your role. Things you might include are a forecasted return on investment for the training, an outline of the skills you&rsquo;ll gain, and what exactly your ambitions are for using this new skillset. Remember - frame it around how this will benefit the wider business, as well as your own career development.
3. Reach out to HR
According to <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bersin-by-deloitte-uk-learning-and-development-organizations-spend-less-on-external-training-providers-even-as-budgets-rebound-300211406.html">Bersin by Deloitte</a>, an individual's average annual learning and development budget is &pound;1,068. So, there&rsquo;s a high chance this is already budgeted. Reach out to your company HR team and ask if there&rsquo;s a policy regarding development budget to leverage in your case.
4. Timing is everything
We all know it&rsquo;s easier to ask for things when people are in the right headspace. Catching your manager off guard when they&rsquo;re busy or their mind is on something else won&rsquo;t allow them to consider what you have to say. If you have a weekly 1:1, perhaps bring it up in that. It&rsquo;s super key to also make sure you&rsquo;re on top of everything currently on your workload so that you, too, are in the right headspace to elevate your career.
5. Be confident
You got this! Remember - you&rsquo;re not the only one that will benefit from career development - your employers will, too. In his book &ldquo;1,001 Ways to Engage Employees&rdquo;, Bob Nelson PhD found the top driver of team member engagement to be development. It&rsquo;s a win-win investment and one that you&rsquo;re 100% entitled to ask for.
Now, let us save you some time researching the perfect career accelerator. <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/hundreds">The Hundreds Club</a> is our sell out career accelerator, which runs four times a year, with each track dedicated to a specific domain. The first track of 2022, kicking off in March, is curated especially for Digital Product roles, and has the likes of Marty Cagan (Silicon Valley Product Group) and Chloe Hajnal-Corob (VP of Product, Trouva) on the impressive list of mentors. Tracks to come later in the year are Sustainability and Impact, PR and Comms, and Social Media and Influencer Marketing.

How to ask for development budget

We&rsquo;re excited to be working with Beauhurst to produce a series of industry reports, examining UK companies that will shape the future of how we consume retail, media and food.
In the second of three reports, we focus on the Future Living industry that&rsquo;s transforming the lived experience: how we parent, educate, track our health, find mental wellbeing and even care for our pets.
The technological age has empowered us to create more harmony with the continuously moving parts of our lives. The Future Living sector is enhancing this, innovating everything from solutions to the most major healthcare challenges to creatively inventing ways to heighten our learning capacity.
From the rise of ParentTech and EdTech to Artificial Intelligence and the IoT (Internet of Things), consumers guide the Future Living sector by their increased desire for optimisation, convenience and enhancement of their lives.
The high-growth Future Living sector houses 1,661 active companies. London is a hotspot for activity in the sector (718 active companies), with Edinburgh (36), Manchester (30) and Leeds (30) also generating Future Living innovation. The industry has collectively raised &pound;4.8b of investment between 2011 and 2020, as well as &pound;246m of grant funding. The space is also home to some of the UK&rsquo;s most notable unicorns, including healthcare company Babylon.
This report will hone in on three sub-industries: HealthTech, EdTech, and ParentTech.
HealthTech is a rapidly growing sector, with 425 active high-growth companies predominantly based in London (205), which is fast establishing itself as a hotbed for HealthTech. Innovation focuses on the prevention, diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of different health conditions. The use of AI in this space supports healthcare workers in making more informed decisions and, ultimately, providing more effective solutions.
The largest emerging sector in the Future Living sphere is EdTech. Over 500 active companies make up this ecosystem. With over half of them still in seed-stage, this is a space to watch. Three themes have materialised in EdTech: gamification, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. Each of them creatively conjures ways to amplify the way we learn.
With over 150 high-growth companies in the UK, ParentTech refers to technology designed to ease the challenges of parenthood. It&rsquo;s also an industry notable for gender equality, with many women entrepreneurs innovating after experiencing motherhood challenges.
Huckletree is built on the motto that &ldquo;No Mind is an Island.&rdquo; We believe you can&rsquo;t change the world alone, which is why we&rsquo;re on a mission to help the most innovative companies, from startups right the way through to MNE, take leaps and do braver work together.
We&rsquo;re more committed than ever to creating the space and environment for teams to work, grow their ventures, collaborate and pioneer whatever comes next. Our Futures Hub in Huckletree White City is home to some of the UK&rsquo;s leading Future Living companies.
The campus, located within the iconic White City Place development, is part of a bold new chapter in the rich creative history of a neighbourhood that sits at the centre of West London&mdash;an area already brimming with high-growth Future Living companies. It&rsquo;s a dedicated haven for startups and global brands paving our future way of life&mdash;how we sleep, think, move, parent, and learn.

<h4>You can download the report <a href="https://hs.huckletree.com/future-living-report-download" rel="follow" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a>.</h4>
We hope you find it to be both engaging and insightful.

Future Insights: Future Living report

Neurodivergence was coined in 1997 by Judy Singer, a sociologist and autistic woman. The term covers people whose brains function differently from what's considered "typical". Core types of neurodivergence are Autism Spectrum, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Dyspraxia. Neurodiverse people face a wealth of challenges daily, but one of the biggest challenges of all is the complete overlook of their extraordinary capacity for unique and highly complex skills.
UK stats suggest that 78% of neurodiverse adults are unemployed, making it the highest unemployment rate of any group in the UK, compared with 48% of disabled adults. But we're finding it hard to grasp why that is when neurodivergence unlocks a type of talent that you won't often find in a neurotypical person.
Most of us will be familiar with the benefits of greater diversity within a team, enhanced culture being one. Increased neurodiversity brings something a little more direct, though. Neurodiverse people are wired differently from their &ldquo;neurotypical&rdquo; counterparts, meaning they offer a fresh set of perspectives to your business's challenges and innovative thinking.

<h3>Neurodivergent talent slips through the grasp of business rigidity</h3>
Take ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) as an example. For the ADHD entrepreneur, their neurodivergent traits have become their greatest business strengths.
A study conducted by economists found some incredible insights on ADHD in the business realm, with benefits including an ability to act under unforeseen circumstances without falling into anxiety and the ability to hyperfocus on tasks they're particularly passionate about. The study's summary of ADHD was "entrepreneurs with ADHD embrace new experiences and demonstrate passion and persistence".
However, ADHD hasn't been coined the entrepreneur's superpower for no good reason. Many people with ADHD become founders, having not had the flexibility needed in employment. See, one prominent trait of ADHD is difficulty in self-regulating activity levels. So, peak energy times may fluctuate throughout the day, not fitting into the standard 9-5 schedule.
Innovation calls for talent from the margins. Imagine if these ADHD entrepreneurs were nurtured within employment? Not only would the individual and collective feeling of inclusion for neurodiverse people be significantly impacted, but the impact this set of individuals would have within a team (and to the broader world of work) would be profound.
Fortunately, the time has never been better to adapt the workplace. It's happening at scale across the globe, so if there was ever the time to create the flexibility that neurodiverse talent needs, it's now.

<h3>Adapting to complexity pays off</h3>
Neurodiversity is complex. What suits one type of neurodivergence might not suit another, and even two different people with the same type will need completely different things. The trick is in adapting your business for flexibility at scale but listening to the needs of the individual.
One of the first barriers to employment for a neurodiverse candidate is the interview process. Traditional interviews consider body language and social cues that can put a neurodiverse person at a disadvantage. To start stripping your company of recruitment processes that disfavour neurodiverse people is to unlearn everything you think you know about social etiquette. Which, of course, is no easy task.
An autistic person may struggle with the initial interview stage due to having different reactions to social cues. They're a lot more sensitive than neurotypical people and see the world from a unique perspective - meaning their response to the world will likely sit outside of what you might expect. However, with the proper support and understanding in an interview setting, you'll probably find that interviews with autistic people are some of the best interviews you'll ever undertake.
Autistic people often have a heightened interest in an element of a role they apply for. This unique passion fuels a level of concentration and focus rarely seen in neurotypicals. Autism also correlates with a critical approach to detail and accuracy - making them some of the best coders and programmers in the world.
<a href="https://hbr.org/2017/05/neurodiversity-as-a-competitive-advantage" style="color: #236fa1;">Managers at SAP reported</a> that their neurodiversity programme was paying off in ways far beyond reputational enhancement - including productivity gains, quality improvement, boosts in innovative capabilities, and overall increases in team member engagement. When SAP launched their Autism at Work programme, they attracted Masters-level candidates in computer science, computational mathematics, engineering and anthropology.
&ldquo;Not surprisingly, when autistic people with those sorts of credentials do manage to get hired, many turn out to be capable, and some are really great.&rdquo; - Robert D. Austin&nbsp;and&nbsp;Gary P. Pisano for <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/05/neurodiversity-as-a-competitive-advantage" style="color: #236fa1;">Harvard Business Review.</a>


<h3>Activating a neurodiversity agenda</h3>
We're not telling you it's going to be easy, but we're telling you it will pay off. Below, we have set out some resources to help you embrace greater neurodiversity in your team.
The first and most crucial step in increasing neurodiversity is finding specialist support from an agency that fully understand and represent neurodiverse needs in employment. London-based <a href="https://exceptionalindividuals.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Exceptional Individuals</a> can support you to navigate the complexities of neurodiverse recruitment.
<a href="https://www.universalmusic.com/">Universal Music</a> discovered few resources on neurodiversity in the creative industries when approaching their diversity objectives. So, they made one. Download their <a href="https://umusic.co.uk/Creative-Differences-Handbook.pdf" style="color: #236fa1;" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Creative Differences handbook.</a>
If you're a member of Huckletree, you can tap into our DEI consultancy service - supporting you to achieve greater diversity across the board, from race and gender to disability and neurodiversity - ask your hub Membership Manager for more information.

<h3>Resources</h3>
Understanding Autism:
<a href="https://www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/" style="color: #236fa1;">Ambitious about Autism</a>
<a href="https://www.autism.org.uk/" style="color: #236fa1;">National Autistic Society</a>
Understanding ADHD:
<a href="https://adhduk.co.uk/" style="color: #236fa1;">ADHD UK</a>
<a href="https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-in-adults/">ADDitude - Adult ADHD: A Guide to Symptoms, Signs, and Treatments</a> (medically reviewed)
Understanding Dyslexia:
<a href="https://www.dyslexialondon.org/" style="color: #236fa1;">Dyslexia London</a>

It's time to put neurodiversity on the DEI agenda

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Our cities are defining the future of our planet. What happens in the city doesn't stay in the city, and we must address the impact the urbanisation creates on a global scale. It's time to pave a new, more sustainable direction for how we live, move, work, and play in the urban landscape.&nbsp;</h2>
Alpha Accelerator 2022 is themed around Urban Futures for this very reason. We're seeking the startups making our cities smarter, so we can pave a brighter future for our urban landscape. The four pillars at the theme's core are Mobility and Transport, Smart Data, Environment, and PropTech. Here's why...
<h3>Mobility and Transport</h3>
Transportation is currently the largest producer of energy-related CO₂ emissions. Researchers estimate that 6 billion gallons of fuel is wasted annually by idling vehicles, so innovation to reduce congestion and traffic is crucial.&nbsp;As we emerge from the pandemic armed with a better awareness of our daily routines, the lack of infrastructure often fails us. From the rise of micro-mobility companies to innovations in the EV (electric vehicle) landscape and transport efficiency IoT solutions, brands operating here are set to become transformative for consumers and the environment.
<h3>Smart Data</h3>
Data is key for us to be able to tackle the complex challenges our cities face, and the Internet of Things (IoT) has meant smart cities can move from utopian dream to reality. Cities across the globe are rolling out data-capturing IoT technology to connect and improve infrastructure, efficiency, and convenience to enhance the quality of life for their citizens. The collection of smart data allows our urban spaces to become more optimised, safer, more secure, and more sustainable places to live.
<h3>Environment</h3>
City planning is fundamental to the future of our planet. Our urban environments contribute to around 40% of the UK and Ireland&rsquo;s total carbon footprint, and innovating to improve this is key to fighting climate change. The way we manage waste streams, reduce emissions, and care for our water and air quality all need a rethink. From smart waste bins and AI-powered recycling robots and rainwater harvesting - we want to meet the brands reinventing our cities for the benefit of the environment.
<h3>PropTech</h3>
PropTech, the amalgamation of real estate and technology, is front and centre of the digitalisation of the property industry within urban environments. Innovation within this sphere could be the key to unlocking a wealth of potential to positively impact property-based societal issues including increasing development in accordance with the UN&rsquo;s SDGs. A more resilient, more responsible property industry will emerge in the wake of this innovation. Take BIM (Building Information Modelling) - this allows architects, engineers, and construction professionals to plan, design, and build with more efficiency and with life cycle awareness for the property.

Are you innovating in these smart cities, or know someone who is? Or, do you have a network within this area?
Applications for Alpha 2022: Urban Futures are open until the 27th of February. <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/alpha" rel="follow">Find out more or apply.</a>&nbsp;

Urban Futures | The Pillars

We know that the path to a more sustainable future begins in our cities. Today, we have the opportunity to look at cities through a new lens. We need to think differently about how we and future generations will live, move, work, and play. From building design, energy efficiency and carbon neutrality to infrastructure, urban agriculture, transportation and mobility, we want to meet the pioneers paving the future of urban living.
And with this emerges our theme for the <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/alpha" style="color: #236fa1;">Alpha Accelerator</a> and <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit" style="color: #236fa1;">Earthrise Sustainability Summit</a> 2022:&nbsp;Urban Futures.
55% of the world's population are now living in urban areas. <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html" style="color: #236fa1;">The UN predicts</a> this number to rise to 68% by 2050. Urban innovation is paramount. We recognise the need to rethink the impact of urban existence and to rethink it fast. So, for 2022, we're elevating our mark in this sphere, making Urban Futures both the Alpha accelerator and Earthrise sustainability summit theme.
"Urbanisation is happening, and it's happening fast. We're choosing to focus Earthrise on Urban Futures in 2022, as a key place for unlocking a more sustainable future. What happens in the city doesn't stay in the city. We have to address that." - Patrick Keogh, Programmes Director.
And the impact doesn't end there. The Alpha Accelerator is a 12-week, pre-seed programme and is open only to teams with at least one founding member from an underrepresented group. The programme attracts a cohort of diverse founders each year, with the Urban Futures track inviting the ninth cohort.
"At Huckletree, we're committed to breaking down the barriers that underrepresented groups face when entering the entrepreneurial ecosystem. From gender and race to sexuality, education, and neurodivergence, Alpha supports a diverse cohort of entrepreneurs to access everything they need to supercharge their business."&nbsp;-&nbsp;Gabriela Hersham, CEO and Co-Founder
In 2019, Alpha was named by Crunchbase is one of the top 100 accelerators in the world. The fully pro-bono programme has seen eight cohorts and 28 alumni companies raise a combined &pound;15m+ in funding, create 200+ jobs, and go through 2 acquisitions.
The intensive programme assembles industry-leading mentors, serial entrepreneurs, and domain experts that lead the cohort through rigorous preparation for seed funding. Weekly workshops cover founder fundamentals including commercial and marketing strategy, hiring, leadership, and weekly 1-1s with an investor, plus group mentoring and dedicated support from the Huckletree team. Then, at the close of the 12-week programme, the cohort will pitch to 100+ investors at the Alpha investor expo.
"This is the only programme we would highly recommend to any early-stage team. A ton of valuable resources and contacts into an efficiently well-curated structure so that we could continue to scale our business" - Yang Liu, Founder &amp; CEO, Just Wears

"Alpha was the best accelerator programme we could have hoped for. The content, speakers, workshops, and network connections organised and facilitated by the team at Huckletree were game-changers for us. We highly, highly (highly) recommend the Alpha programme to any startups and aspiring entrepreneurs out there" Mary Liu &amp; Caroline Williams, Co-Founders, Junee
So, consider this an open call for underrepresented founders trailblazing a new approach for our Urban Future.
Applications open on January the 3rd. <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/alpha" style="color: #236fa1;">Register your interest for Alpha now</a>.
If you're not a founder but are passionate about discovering what the future landscape of our urban reality looks like, you can meet the Alpha Urban Futures cohort, along with a wider global intelligence network of exceptional speakers at the <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit" style="color: #236fa1;">Earthrise sustainability summit in May</a>.
We're also seeking sponsors and partners to collaborate with on both the Alpha programme and the Earthrise Summit. <a href="mailto:patrick@huckletree.com" style="color: #236fa1;">Get in contact with Huckletree Director of Programming, Patrick Keogh</a>.

Alpha // Earthrise 2022 - Urban Futures

The Huckletree Christmas Edit

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Only 21% of the UK workforce believe that they're genuinely productive for an entire workday.&nbsp;</h2>
While it's completely okay to have ebbs and flows in productivity, we all have days where we need to be a little more on the ball. So, if you're part of the 79% of us where that doesn't come naturally, then fear not. This blog post explores some of the next-gen brands, from Nootropic drinks to HealthTech apps, that elevate your mood, creativity and productivity.
Performance-boosting synthetic nootropics is a somewhat controversial topic, primarily surrounding ethics and potential side effects. However, natural nootropics is an exploding market, and entrepreneurs across the globe are scrambling to take advantage of the demand. New kid on the block and drinks brand, <a href="https://peakmoods.com/" style="color: #3598db;">Peak</a>, use natural nootropics like Guayusa to help boost brain function. Guayusa is something of a wunderplant containing both caffeine and an amino acid called L-Theanine, which research shows releases alpha brainwaves. While pure caffeine (like in coffee) gives you a boost, it's also linked to feelings of anxiety and nervousness. The theory with Guayusa is that alpha brainwaves from the L-Theanine enhance focus and creativity, and combine with the caffeine to give you that same boost but, critically, without the negative side effects. Essentially it's a cleaner, clearer kick compared to your morning coffee. Sign. us. up. Huckletree members can now get Peak in Vinny vending machines!
Many of us use meditation to help focus the mind, but in the inimitable words of the Dalai Lama, 'sleep is the best meditation'. The science is pretty clear on the impact sleep can have both in the short and long term on brain cognition; getting enough hours of high quality sleep each night helps with concentration levels, judgement, problem-solving, and creativity. Poor quality sleep negatively impacts all of the aforementioned and can, in the long term, lead to cognitive decline and dementia. Apps like <a href="https://www.risescience.com/">RISE</a> are pioneering a more accurate way of approaching how we think about sleep with the concept of sleep debt. The app combines phone data and its own proprietary technology to track how much sleep you owe your body and then provides tailored recommendations for how you can improve your sleep habits. The app also provides insights on your energy peaks and troughs, so you can plan out your activity to optimise productivity.
The CBD industry is now worth around &pound;700million a year in the UK, and the positive effects of the non-psychoactive substance are many and wide-ranging, helping with everything from pain to seizures, migraines and sleep. However, the research is still comparatively new in scientific terms. CBD research also shows evidence for improving brain function by boosting the neural pathways involved in thought navigation, resulting in higher productivity. What is clear though, is that not all CBD supplements are created equal. For instance, drinks infused with CBD can be problematic because very little of the CBD is actually absorbed into your body after being broken down by the enzymes in your gut. Research suggests that an oil held under the tongue is the best way to take CBD, like those from UK startup <a href="https://fourfive.com/">fourfive cbd</a>, which was founded by two professional sportsmen, raised pre-seed investment earlier this year and mainlines in high-quality oils and balms.
For a more one-stop-shop approach to boosting performance in the workplace, the mental health app <a href="https://unmind.com/" style="color: #3598db;">Unmind</a> is specifically targeted at businesses that take the wellbeing of their workforce seriously. The tools they offer span meditation, CBT, yoga and sleep, and are designed to help companies to foster a strong company culture to drive performance. Since its inception in 2016, Unmind has raised over $63m and works with brands such as John Lewis, British Airways and Uber.
So there you have it, a few next-gen supplements and apps to help you go forth and be your most productive, efficient self.

Creating the perfect headspace to maximise productivity

<h2 style="text-align: center;">"Net-zero increasingly involves highly questionable carbon accounting. As a result, the new politics swirling around net-zero targets is rapidly becoming a confusing and dangerous mix of pragmatism, self-delusion and weapons-grade greenwash." - Simon Lewis, professor of global change science at UCL.</h2>

Hailed as the smart way to lead us towards net-zero, carbon accounting works by calculating how much carbon is emitted into the atmosphere so companies can work out how to reduce, mitigate and remove as much as possible. Sounds simple enough, but is carbon accounting all it's cracked up to be? In this article, we explore some of the flaws behind the system and look at how the business and innovation community can be at the forefront of correcting the listing ship.
The Problems
Perhaps the biggest problem with carbon accounting is that it's self-regulated. Governments and regulatory bodies have been incredibly slow to create rules that must be adhered to and impose consequences if those standards aren't met. If a company gets its financial accounting wrong, it can expect hefty fines and even prison time for the company directors. With carbon accounting, companies get praised for simply trying, regardless of the outcome. Carbon accounting happens voluntarily and, as a result, is rife with inaccuracies, assumptions and guesstimates.
So, what tools are companies using to calculate their emissions for carbon accounting? There's no single unified system for carbon accounting, but the most widely used is the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol. The protocol splits emissions into three groups labelled as 'scopes'; Scope 1 covers direct emissions; Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the generation of energy purchased; Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions that occur in a company's value chain. You can probably see where we're going with this, but essentially companies can be pretty accurate with Scopes 1 and 2, but Scope 3 presents a real opportunity for getting it completely wrong. And companies do. Frequently.
The third issue with carbon accounting is that people often fudge the statistics with offsetting rather than removal. Companies often justify continued investment in and usage of fossil fuels by 'offsetting' their carbon. For instance, Mark Carney's $600bn Brookfield Asset Management portfolio has been described as carbon neutral despite its fossil fuel investment because investments in renewables offset them. So while carbon accounting sounds good, the reality is anything but. This attitude won't get us to net-zero, and until there is a weightier focus put on discontinuing emissions rather than offsetting them, we never will.
The Solutions
However, there is a reason for optimism, and technology and innovation are at the heart of it. In October 2021, Microsoft announced the launch of the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability which aims to make carbon accounting easier for businesses. The tool addresses three core issues: unifying data from multiple sources and integrating it into one source of truth, providing reports so companies can properly analyse this data, and giving actionable recommendations to help businesses reduce their emissions. And, it's not only big businesses like Microsoft that are getting in on the act. UK startups like <a href="https://emitwise.com/" style="color: #3598db;">Emitwise</a> are taking it one step further and using artificial intelligence to enable companies to monitor, measure and ultimately report on their carbon footprints across all three Scopes. Another exciting startup to watch is <a href="https://www.circulor.com/">Circulor</a>, an organisation focusing on giving businesses traceability data for complex supply chains, enabling them to make more responsible decisions regarding sourcing and recycling products. Tech like this and the wave of exciting startups looking to tackle climate change at every level should give us all reason for hope.
The message is clear: we will never hit net-zero unless we can accurately measure carbon emissions. For that, we need better carbon accounting models and strict regulation. But with technology constantly evolving and businesses dedicating themselves to addressing these issues, we might just get there. So is carbon accounting all it's cracked up to be? No. But it certainly could be.

Is carbon accounting all it's cracked up to be?

<h2 class="slug__IntroText-sc-ex76vq-0 dpFAJA" style="text-align: center;">We're excited to be working with Beauhurst to produce a series of industry reports examining UK companies that will shape the future of how we consume retail, media and food. In the first of three reports, we focus on how we eat, what we eat and the UK FoodTech companies transforming the industry.</h2>

After a decade of rising social awareness, health initiatives and environmental activism, contemporary consumers want their food healthy, ethical and sustainably sourced. From the rise of meat alternatives and groceries-on-demand to AI-powered AgriTech, the FoodTech sector's future is increasingly guided by consumer attitudes towards conscious consumption, climate, and convenience.
The UK's high-growth ecosystem has seen 863 innovative FoodTech companies launched since 2011, and 650 are still active fast-growing businesses. Between 2011 and 2020, these businesses raised a significant &pound;2.6b in equity investment. The annual number of equity investments into UK FoodTech has been steadily climbing, with 2019 seeing an enormous &pound;687m worth of fundraising. Deliveroo secured the most equity at &pound;1.1b. The following five dominating fundraisers were Karma Kitchen, Gousto, Hungry Panda, Just Eat, and Rekki, who secured a combined total of &pound;602m.
Not only are buyers more deliberate with their food purchases, but they're willing to pay more for the luxury of an on-demand lifestyle. This high-growth ecosystem has led to a surge in FoodTech startups, fuelled by record levels of equity investment, grants awarded and successful crowdfunding campaigns. This report equally highlights veganism and how a marginalised group has grown to over half a million people in the United Kingdom. The plant-based revolution has spawned over a hundred FoodTech companies in the UK since 2011, with London becoming a key European hub for vegan startups.
With the world's population predicted to hit nearly 10 billion by 2050, FoodTech innovation is becoming a moral necessity. Significant developments in agriculture and the global supply chain are needed to fight world hunger. We have also chosen to highlight key AgriTech companies using data to increase yields, encourage sustainability and fight the effects of climate change.
The rolling lockdowns of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic supercharged the food delivery industry. Nimbler tech-powered startups are disrupting supermarkets and traditional retail. We take a look at some of the rising stars opening fulfilment hubs in London's fiercely competitive grocery and meal-kit delivery market.
We spotlight four high-growth FoodTech companies in this report: Cervest, a weather analytics B Corp founded in 2015 with &pound;25.7m funding raised; Gousto, unicorn company and meal kit subscription service founded in 2012 with &pound;161m raised; Karma Kitchen, a commercial kitchen and rental platform founded in 2017 with &pound;252m raised; Hummingbird Technologies, imagery-based agricultural analytics company founded in 2015 with &pound;14m raised.
Huckletree is built on the motto that "No Mind is an Island." We believe you can't change the world alone, which is why we're on a mission to help the most innovative companies, from startup right the way through to MNE, take leaps and do braver work together. We're more committed than ever to creating the space and environment for teams to work, grow their ventures, collaborate and pioneer whatever comes next.
Our Futures Hub in Huckletree White City is home to some of the UK's leading FoodTech companies. The campus, located within the iconic White City Place development, is part of a bold new chapter in the rich creative history of a neighbourhood that sits at the centre of West London &ndash; an area already brimming with high-growth FoodTech companies. It's a dedicated haven for startups and global brands paving our future way of life &ndash; how we sleep, think, move, and, of course, eat.
You can download the report <a href="https://hs.huckletree.com/download-foodtech-report" rel="follow" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a>. We hope you find this report to be both engaging and informative.

Future Insights: FoodTech 2021 report

<h2 style="text-align: center;">When assessing a company's overall performance and health, many people immediately turn to the quantifiables like revenue, profit, and staff turnover. However, studies have consistently shown that there's a harder to quantify factor that also significantly impacts growth and innovation: culture.&nbsp;</h2>

Forbes reports that companies with strong cultures achieve revenue levels four times higher than those that don&rsquo;t. And, when it comes to culture, I'm not talking about office perks like free snacks, company socials and flexible working (although they all help). I'm talking about the values of your business when it comes to team member behaviour and productivity.
As Executive Chairman of Pfizer, Ian Read, puts it,&nbsp;&ldquo;Get it right, and culture can transform your company&rsquo;s performance and help sustain success for years to come. Get it wrong, and you&rsquo;ll pay dearly for it&hellip; for years to come.&rdquo;
Something so inherently unquantifiable can be challenging to cultivate, though, with Deloitte reporting that only 28% of executives say they understand their organisation&rsquo;s culture.
So what are some of the critical factors in developing a strong culture that can, in turn, turbocharge your growth?

<h4>Engage &amp; empower your employees</h4>
HR Cloud reports that a meagre 36% of employees feel engaged in their workplace. In comparison, a highly engaged workforce can increase profitability by over 20%. And what&rsquo;s the single most crucial factor in team member engagement? Trust. Team members who feel trusted and empowered are far more likely to bring their A-Game to work every day and be their most productive, efficient selves. Whether it&rsquo;s Pret giving their employees budgets to give out free drinks whenever they want or a manager simply asking their team which management style will get the best from them, empowering people rather than limiting them is strongly linked to increased creativity, innovation, productivity and ultimately, growth.

<h4>Ask the hard questions</h4>
Typically companies only stop and assess their culture when something goes wrong, by which time it&rsquo;s already too late. Companies that have their culture nailed recognise that it&rsquo;s an ever-evolving beast, which grows and changes as the business grows, and needs constant attention. It&rsquo;s vital to assess your culture even when you think it&rsquo;s going really well. Anonymous staff surveys allow your workforce to give honest feedback, and you shouldn&rsquo;t be afraid to ask hard questions. Talking about culture is one thing, but walking the talk and actively seeking feedback and implementing change based on that feedback, is key to building a solid culture.

<h4>Take advantage</h4>
Strong company culture is increasingly becoming a marketing advantage. Trust isn't only critical among your workforce but with your customers and investors as well. You only need to look at the culture controversies of Uber and Brewdog to know that poor company culture can have serious reputational damage, which significantly impacts revenue. Consumers are no longer content to accept what a company projects on the surface and increasingly spend their money with responsible and conscientious brands in terms of the planet, their supply chains, and their workforce.
While culture may be hard to quantify, it&rsquo;s clear that the impact it can have on the growth of your business is incontrovertible. So if you haven't already, take some time to sit back and assess your current company culture, get feedback from your team and look for areas for improvement - it'll prove a sure-fire winner for building sustainable growth.

Building a culture fit for growth

<h2 style="text-align: center;">The way we live is constantly evolving. The ongoing creation of new technologies paves a reality where we can optimise, create more convenience, and ultimately improve our everyday lives.</h2>
Innovation in this space is far more crucial than for convenience's sake. Mental health issues are on the rise, sleep disorders are disrupting our rest, and health problems are going undetected for far too long (only to be followed up with ineffective "one size fits all" solutions). Quite simply, the way we live is calling out for a technological revolution.
Fortunately, there's a wealth of innovators rising to the challenge of elevating the lived experience. From HealthTech to SleepTech and BrainTech, here are four of the next-gen Future Living brands to watch as we move into 2022.

<h4>Dnanudge</h4>
Nutrigenomics focuses on the relationship between genomics, nutrition, and health. It's certainly not a new concept. Companies have been commercialising it as early as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3602567/" style="color: #236fa1;">1980s</a>. But, with the introduction of tech and instant access to information - could nutrigenomics be the next big thing to personalise the way we eat?
<a href="https://www.dnanudge.com/index.php" style="color: #236fa1;">Dnanudge</a>&nbsp;is making this a very likely prospect. Their bracelet (DnaBand) holds your "digitised DNA", allowing you to scan food items while you shop. As you browse, a glow of a light (green, amber, or red) indicates whether that food is good for your genome. Super cool, right?
The personalised genomics horizon in the UK currently has the likes of <a href="https://joinzoe.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">ZOE</a> (researching gut microbiome), <a href="https://lifebit.ai/" style="color: #236fa1;">Lifebit</a> and <a href="https://www.congenica.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Congenica</a> (medical genomics), <a href="https://atlasbiomed.com/uk" style="color: #236fa1;">Atlas Biomed</a> and <a href="https://ome.health/" style="color: #236fa1;">OME</a> (Consumer Personalised Genomics).
Dnanudge&nbsp;is currently the only wearable solution that supports you to make healthier and more personalised decisions as you shop. Plus, it removes the need for extensive research and a separate nutritionist - you're guided in real-time based on your own unique make-up.

<h4>Kokoon</h4>
SleepTech innovation is having a profound effect on the way we sleep. With devices able to capture valuable data to optimise our sleeping patterns, we're all about to feel much more rested (hallelujah!).&nbsp;<a href="https://uk.kokoon.io/" style="color: #236fa1;">Kokoon's</a>&nbsp;two sleep-enhancing products include their <a href="https://uk.kokoon.io/products/relax-headphones" style="color: #236fa1;">Relax Headphones</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://uk.kokoon.io/products/nightbuds" style="color: #236fa1;">Nightbuds</a>.
The Relax Headphones, with active white noise and noise cancellation, tracks EEG brainwaves and senses motion. For the side-sleeper, the Nightbuds provide ultimate comfort, intelligent noise-masking and sleep sensors. Both then provide insights and tips specific to you, so you can get the best night's sleep.
In 2020, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gminsights.com/pressrelease/sleep-tech-devices-market?utm_source=globenewswire.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=Paid_globenewswire" style="color: #236fa1;">report</a> from Global Market Insights predicted the market valuation of sleep tech devices will cross $32 billion by 2026. The report also indicated that the increased prevalence of sleep disorders like Insomnia will contribute to the market's growth.

<h4>HelloSelf</h4>
London-based BrainTech startup <a href="https://www.helloself.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">HelloSelf</a> connects its members with top UK clinical psychologists and provides AI-enhanced support between sessions, making for a much more personalised approach to mental wellbeing.
Digital Therapy has shown rates as high as a&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.deloitte.co.uk/health/2020/10/word-mental-health-day-how-digital-technologies-can-help-meet-rising-demand-for-mental-health-servic.html" style="color: #236fa1;">10% increase</a>&nbsp;in recovery compared to IAPT therapy. Waiting times to receive treatment have also been <a href="https://blogs.deloitte.co.uk/health/2020/10/word-mental-health-day-how-digital-technologies-can-help-meet-rising-demand-for-mental-health-servic.html" style="color: #236fa1;">reduced to days</a>&nbsp;instead of weeks. BrainTech and Digital Therapy startups have a wealth of potential for revolutionising mental wellbeing for the better. HelloSelf's AI component brings even more capacity for improvement on these statistics.
Earlier this year, HelloSelf raised &pound;5.5m in a Series A round from OMERS Ventures. Harry Briggs, OMERS Managing Partner, will be <a href="https://tech.eu/brief/london-based-ai-powered-therapy-service-helloself-raises-5-5-million/">joining the HelloSelf board</a>&nbsp;as part of the deal. They will be using the funds to develop their workplace offering, a B2B service helping businesses give mental health support to their teams.

<h4>Thriva</h4>
At-home health test kits have come a long way since Organon International patented the pregnancy test in 1969. Today, at-home blood testing can provide you with valuable insights to help better care for your health.
<a href="https://thriva.co/" style="color: #236fa1;">Thriva</a>&nbsp;offers testing kits that provide information on everything from energy and mood to long-term health and fitness. With every blood test, you can access evidence-based ways to improve your health, and a GP report accompanies the results. Thriva's tests break down some of the gatekeeping around healthcare insights that have been so common historically. Users can gain a deeper understanding of how their lifestyle affects their health and any changes that happen. Here's to more informed healthcare!

<h4>Huckletree West - London's home for Future Living brands</h4>
Our West space in White City is a curated campus of Future Living brands. From FoodTech innovators to HealthTech pioneers, Huckletree West hosts an ecosystem of companies challenging the status quo of how we live. We'd love to show you around. Head&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huckletree.com/spaces/west" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a>&nbsp;to book your tour.

Four companies to watch in the Future Living space

<h2 style="text-align: center;">"When you read the right book at the right time it can have a cathartic effect on you and help you to completely change the way that you look at the world."</h2>

Ahead of her workshop series this month, we sat down with Bibliotherapy expert Ella Berthoud to find out a little bit more about Bibliotherapy, exactly what it is,&nbsp; and how it can have such profound effects on people&rsquo;s lives.

<h4>How would you describe Bibliotherapy to someone who&rsquo;s never heard of it?</h4>
Bibliotherapy is the art of prescribing fiction to cure life&rsquo;s ailments. So when I meet a client, I find out about their reading habits, their reading loves, their reading dislikes and I then ponder which books are best to give them at this time in their lives to help them with whatever issues they&rsquo;re going through. It can just be about the joys of reading and all about what they should read but it can also deal with particular issues that are going on in their lives. For example, if they&rsquo;re going through a divorce, if they&rsquo;re about to have children, if they&rsquo;re about to retire, if they&rsquo;re bereaved -&nbsp; I give them books to help them with any of those issues. On the other hand, I can just give them brilliant books to read because maybe they are stuck in a reading rut. I also talk to the client about what they like to read, where they like to read, when they like to read, how they like to read and part of my role as a Bibliotherapist is to help the client to ponder about how they can get more out of reading in various different ways.

<h4>When did you first discover Bibliotherapy?</h4>
I first discovered Bibliotherapy when I was studying at Cambridge University with my friend <a href="https://susanelderkin.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Susan Elderkin</a> who was in the room next door to me and we started talking to each other about healing through reading. We were both studying english literature and we realised that we were fundamentally changed by whatever we read and we could be put into a completely different mood or frame of mind by reading that book, at that time. At the time we thought we would be more of an agony aunt, so we discussed writing for a newspaper and getting people to write to us and for us to give them book prescriptions but we gradually realised that it would be really great to do one to one Bibliotherapy talking to the client directly. So we evolved Bibliotherapy into what it is today via <a href="https://www.theschooloflife.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">The School of Life</a>. We started the service at The School of Life as a one to one service where we send a questionnaire to the client, they give us all their answers, we then meet the client and have a chat with them (that can last up to an hour) and after that, we send them a prescription of reading.

<h4>How long has Bibliotherapy been around and what are the benefits?</h4>
Bibliotherapy has actually been around since the time of Aristotle! When me and my Friend <a href="https://susanelderkin.com/">Susan Elderkin</a> first thought about Bibliotherapy we thought we&rsquo;d invented it but we were wrong. We researched Bibliotherapy and discovered that it's been going for at least 2,000 years. So, the ancient Greeks were using Bibliotherapy in their own way by putting hospitals next to theatres so that sick people could be cured as much by art as they were cursed by traditional medicine. People also used it during the second world war and during the 1960&rsquo;s it was used a lot for kids because doctors realised that Bibliotherapy could really help soldiers coming back from the trenches and kids going through difficult divorces of their parents and so on. The benefits now are multitudinous. Bibliotherapy helps people with anxiety, it helps people who have all kinds of issues that come with the experience of &ldquo;living&rdquo; by showing them different ways to look at the situations that they&rsquo;re in. When you read the right book at the right time it can have a cathartic effect on you and help you to completely change the way that you look at the world. By inhabiting a book you inhabit the characters within the pages and you can be fundamentally changed by living the life within a novel. 
<h4>Why do you think it's so important in today's climate?</h4>
Bibliotherapy is really important, especially in today's climate. More people are suffering from anxiety, stress, overwork and burnout. They need to sit down and read and get away from all. They can reap the benefits of Bibliotherapy in so many ways. Also, during this time of pandemic, Bibliotherapy is all the more important because people have been having to spend more time on their own, separated from their loved ones. Through Bibliotherapy, they can actually reconnect with their loved ones by sharing books together. One of the things I talk about as a Bibliotherapist are some of the&nbsp; great ways of sharing books, reading aloud, reading over skype or zoom and reading books concurrently that you can discuss with loved ones who you&rsquo;re separated from. There are so many ways Bibliotherapy can be incredibly helpful now.
<h4></h4>
<h4>What&rsquo;s your preference, fiction or nonfiction?</h4>
We genuinely prescribe fiction more than non-fiction because we believe that by entering into a fictional universe, you inhabit the characters in a way that&rsquo;s different to reading non-fiction. Non-fiction speaks to your conscious brain, whereas fiction speaks to your unconscious brain and you are fundamentally alerted by the experience of living in a character's life. You experience the catharsis of their emotions when you read fiction. When you read non-fiction, it can be brilliant, it can be life-changing, it can be incredibly informative but it doesn't necessarily affect you at the same level as a sea change in the same way fiction does.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

<h4>Is there a book that changed your life?&nbsp;</h4>
I would say it&rsquo;s a book called <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jitterbug-Perfume-Tom-Robbins/dp/1842430351">&lsquo;Jitterbug Perfume&rsquo; by Tom Robbins</a>', which is one of my favourite books of all time. My copy has lots of notes in it from places that I've marked. It&rsquo;s a book about a man searching for immortality. It starts off in the 8th century A.D and carries on into the 1970&rsquo;s. So he does find a way of living seemingly forever, I won&rsquo;t tell you what happens, but it's a brilliant book which is full of &lsquo;joie de vivre&rsquo;. It&rsquo;s a book that makes you think that anything is possible and it makes you feel a tremendous energy and joy for life. It&rsquo;s a book that I read when I was in my early twenties and I just loved it&rsquo;s message and the way it makes you feel energised and as if infinite possibilities are at your fingertips. It also made me believe even more in the transformative power of books.

Find yourself intrigued and want to find out more? Book your spot at one of Ella&rsquo;s upcoming workshops <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bibliotherapy-improve-your-work-and-home-life-tickets-161197860139" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a>.

Can Bibliotherapy transform your life? In conversation with Ella Berthoud

<h2 style="text-align: center;">"People live their life how they breathe"</h2>
<h4>Ahead of her upcoming workshop series, I caught up with breathwork guru and genuine wellness inspiration, Nicola Price, founder of Inspirational Breathing.</h4>

<h4>We started our catch up with an impromptu (and I must admit, extremely effective) breath pattern analysis. Nicola gave me a quick diagnostic rundown on where my breathing was out of whack and the potential emotional response-related reasons. Spoiler alert, like most of us living in a post-pandemic world, I&rsquo;m stressed. With a few quick fixes and within about 5 minutes, I was breathing deeply again and feeling more calm and collected than I have in months.&nbsp;</h4>

<h4>With my zen fully restored, we sat down to chat about all things Inspirational Breathing, the full lowdown on her upcoming workshop and the life-altering effects of breathwork.</h4>
 
<h4>How would you explain/describe inspirational breathing to someone who&rsquo;s never heard of it before?</h4>
Well, starting off, it&rsquo;s important to know that most people have dysfunctional breath. On a physical level, Inspirational Breathing shows you how to breathe properly with a diaphragmatic breath. On an emotional level, once we start retraining the breath to a fully functioning pattern, that supports the whole system emotionally. The rewards on an emotional level are enormous. It&rsquo;s also a way of helping people stay connected to themselves. Spiritually, a lot of people who have a spiritual element to their lives feel very connected through meditation and a breathing practice will help open that up. So it works on three levels: the physical, the emotional and the spiritual or connection to self.
 
<h4>Could you tell us a little about yourself and how you got involved in the world of inspirational breathing?</h4>
I&rsquo;ve been in breathwork for 10 years now and the moment I came to it, I was in a workshop myself, I realised it was my vocation. Before that, I was a corporate coach for 18 years working in leadership. When I came to breathwork, it just seemed to be the most efficient way of manifesting and creating change individually, which then, in turn, translates to creating it in teams or in an organisation. I now train people. I like efficiency so the way I turn up in the world is to train people in inspirational breathwork. I use breathwork in my own life every day. An example is I&rsquo;ve just started driving a Kawasaki 650 (motorcycle), which is the scariest thing I&rsquo;ve ever had to do. I don&rsquo;t know what I would have done without breathwork. I was able to really control my physical being and my emotional being through the whole process. Relating breathwork to real life situations is really important.&nbsp;
 
<h4>Why do you think it&rsquo;s important for people to prioritise finding a place for mindfulness and wellness in their lives?</h4>
I don&rsquo;t think that the physical and emotional human being is designed to manage the amount of information that we have in the present day. We&rsquo;re bombarded by all sorts of desires of other people to take our attention and it&rsquo;s really hard to carve out our own, personal space. To do that, it makes sense to have something so that when we do get to our personal space, it&rsquo;s really effective. That we have support to process difficult emotions. If people have their own meditation practice, I know that sometimes, it can be really hard to show up. That&rsquo;s why yoga classes or something like Slimming World works because we hold ourselves accountable to someone else. We have a process or a way to help us manage those moments we can carve out for ourselves, to make them super efficient and make them work for us. Hundreds of people come to breathwork and they say it genuinely changes their lives. They feel more in control, they feel able to manage things physically and emotionally.&nbsp;

<h4>Have you noticed that COVID has affected the way we breathe?</h4>
Enormously. In both adults and children. Adults&rsquo; breathing has altered due to the extra stress COVID has added to our daily lives but I see it altering children's breathing too, through their parents. If you think about children, they copy mannerisms; children are so observant and without even noticing it they&rsquo;ll pick up on a stressed adult&rsquo;s breathing pattern and copy it. Children are just so present and they notice the smallest shifts. What I find when I get to children&rsquo;s breath patterns is that they will reflect the parents&rsquo;. We know that breath and emotion are connected, so if the children are mirroring the breath, they&rsquo;re most likely mirroring the stress.
 
<h4>Is your technique based on a particular school of breathwork or is it a combination of practices?&nbsp;</h4>
It&rsquo;s a combination of things. I trained personally for 2 years with an organisation called Transformational Breath. As my background was in training, I then took that and expanded it. I use different techniques like sound vibration and heat/cold in the work I do. I use different affirmations or a different way of turning up in presence. I&rsquo;m quite a small organisation so it can be much more intuitive. The way that I train practitioners is that I only like to train a small number at a time, so there&rsquo;s a lot of personal and individual work. It&rsquo;s much more responsive to the present moment and to most modalities.
 
<h4>As it&rsquo;s a digital session, is there anything attendees should know/ prep beforehand?</h4>
You should make sure you have enough space to lie down where I can see from the top of your head to your pelvis. It&rsquo;s important for me to be able to see your breath pattern, not only as you're sitting but also lying down. Make sure to wear comfortable clothes that allow you to breathe comfortably and a drink of water. If you decide to join us for the more advanced session after the preliminary one, we can discuss that in our session.&nbsp;
 
Feeling fully restored and genuinely inspired, we chat monetarily about Brighton, the welsh countryside and Nicola&rsquo;s time spent in Goa before we say our goodbyes. Nicola was off to take a dip in the English Channel with her cold water swimming group, which she lovingly calls &ldquo;The Rottingdean Swirlers&rdquo;. I&rsquo;m now fully convinced that she may be a genuine, real-life superhero.&nbsp;

Interested in seeing what all the fuss is about? Book your spot to join Nicola&rsquo;s next session <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/introduction-to-inspirational-breathing-tickets-161208810893">here</a>, or find out more about Inspirational Breathing:

Web: <a href="https://www.inspirationalbreathing.com/" rel="follow" style="color: #236fa1;">inspirationalbreathing.com</a> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/inspirationalbreathing/?hl=en" rel="follow" style="color: #236fa1;">@</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/inspirationalbreathing/?hl=en" rel="follow" style="color: #236fa1;">inspirationalbreathing</a>

The Power of Breath | In conversation with Nicola Price

<h2 style="text-align: center;">"We&rsquo;re in a climate crisis. We&rsquo;re also in the middle of a global pandemic and we know there is massive social injustice continuing across a vast range of demographics. We need to see major global change."</h2>
Ahead of our event on becoming a B Corp (<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-become-a-b-corp-with-seismics-amy-bourbeau-tickets-161112404539" rel="follow" style="color: #3598db;">RSVP your spot here</a>), we sat down with host Amy Bourbeau to understand a little more about her background, why businesses should take sustainability seriously and what we can expect from the session...

<h3>Could you tell us a little about yourself and how you got involved in the world of B Corp certification?</h3>

I first heard about B Corp in 2015, when there were only 6 B Corps in the UK. I was working in the world of social and environmental responsibility and across a variety of certifications and standards, but fell in love with the breadth and rigour of the B Corp certification and the strong community it creates. I soon focused my career on being a B Corp consultant, and helped B Lab UK to create and deliver the B Leaders training programme, which we are still delivering to this day. On my journey so far I&rsquo;ve been lucky enough to support numerous businesses on their B Corp journey, helping companies like Innocent, Sipsmith, Lily&rsquo;s Kitchen and Avon to navigate the B Corp certification process. I&rsquo;m passionate about growing the B Corp movement and helping as many companies as possible use the certification process to improve their impact.&nbsp;

Last year I founded Seismic with Andy Schmidt and Paul Lewis. We&rsquo;re a sustainability consultancy with expertise in both B Corp and Net Zero. Our aim is to help change society for the better and fix our planet, we&rsquo;re helping businesses to prosper by becoming an increasingly impactful force for good.&nbsp;

<h3>Why should a company care about becoming B Corp certified?</h3>

We&rsquo;re in a climate crisis. We&rsquo;re also in the middle of a global pandemic and we know there is massive social injustice continuing across a vast range of demographics. We need to see major global change.

We believe that business has a pivotal role and responsibility in leading the way to make this change happen, but we also understand that it's tough to know where to start. The B Corp certification provides an ideal framework to do this. It gives responsible businesses a means to evaluate their impact on employees, the community and the environment. The B Impact Assessment (The BIA) gives a company a clear benchmark of where their company lies on the B Corp spectrum and what they need to work on to achieve B Corp certification.

<h3>What can people expect to learn during the session on Wednesday?</h3>

We want to demystify the B Corp process for people, explain what it involves, how to go about approaching it, and what to expect. We&rsquo;re talking to Butternut Box and The Collective who have each gone through the B Corp journey so you can hear different perspectives on the process. I hope people will come away feeling empowered to embark on a sustainability journey and better informed about B Corp so they can decide if it is right for them.

Book your spot for the event <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-become-a-b-corp-with-seismics-amy-bourbeau-tickets-161112404539" rel="follow" style="color: #3598db;">here</a>.

In Conversation with Amy Bourbeau 

In conversation with Amy Bourbeau

<h2 class="slug__IntroText-sc-ex76vq-0 dpFAJA" style="text-align: center;">Since its inception in 2006 (and 2015 in the UK), the concept of the B Corp has grown exponentially, particularly in the post-recession era as society has sought to hold businesses accountable for their actions, tying in with B Lab&rsquo;s measurement of businesses in terms of environmental and societal impact alongside profitability (gotta save that planet, people).</h2>
While the accreditation itself may be seen as the main benefit to becoming a B Corp, it doesn&rsquo;t stop there, so here are some of the less obvious benefits to gaining that iconic stamp of approval&hellip;
<h4>Objectivity</h4>
Many teams may think they&rsquo;re already walking this particular walk and so why pay for the pleasure of finding out what you already know? However, the beauty of the B Impact Assessment is that it&rsquo;s a completely objective tool which will undoubtedly highlight areas for improvement that businesses wouldn&rsquo;t necessarily be able to identify by themselves, from tightening governance practises to taking better care of employees and embedding the mission into the brand. The B Corp model also demands constant improvement in order to maintain its status; being a B Corp keeps companies honest and that can only be a good thing.
<h4>The Bottom Line</h4>
A common misconception about being a B Corp is that companies need to sacrifice profitability in order to pass the test, but the reality is more nuanced. The concept was founded on capitalist principles and the notion that businesses don&rsquo;t have to choose between profitability and morality - the two can not only co-exist but enhance one another. The stats back this up; in the US, B Corps were found to be 63% more likely to survive the recession and in 2017 UK B Corps grew 28 times faster than GDP. What&rsquo;s more, B Corp status makes businesses very attractive to investors, who are increasingly looking to diversify their portfolios; the meticulous assessment process also means due diligence may be more straightforward in a B Corp sale.
<h4>People Power</h4>
Conscious consumerism is a buzz phrase that&rsquo;s not going anywhere soon and B Corps are riding the crest of that wave. And while reports have repeatedly shown that consumers are becoming increasingly willing to pay more for responsible products and services, consumers remain sceptical about brands&rsquo; claims of sustainability. This is where&nbsp; B Corp accreditation is key; the trust conscious consumers place in the rigorous hoops companies must jump through to attain it means they increasingly look for this formal stamp of approval before giving a company their own.&nbsp;
In addition, B Corps are increasingly attracting the best talent as sustainability and societal impact become core factors in new hires agreeing to join a business. PWC predicts that by 2030 corporate responsibility will no longer be a nice-to-have but a non-negotiable when it comes to attracting the best talent to your business. The message? Not only does being a B Corp help brands attract a growing audience, but a higher quality workforce too, both of which mean only good things for a business&rsquo;s growth potential.
<h4>B-coming Part of the Community</h4>
There are around 3,500 B Corps globally and over 400 in the UK, and B Lab (the organisation behind the B Corp accreditation) doesn&rsquo;t just stamp your wrist and wave you off into the sunset, they compile and share case studies, offer professional development and empower their members via organisations like We The Change, a group for female B Corp CEOs committed to working together to drive an inclusive and sustainable global economy. Marvellous.
So having said all that, the question on everyone&rsquo;s lips is, is there a reason not to become a B Corp??

Looking Beyond the Obvious: Four Benefits to Being a B Corp

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Shopping sustainably can be a minefield but in the last few years we&rsquo;ve seen a societal shift towards eco-consciousness and the desire to prioritise products that are good for our planet.</h2>
Our preferences have changed and we&rsquo;re making it known by speaking with our spend. In response, we&rsquo;ve seen many companies shift their offering to become more sustainable and planet-friendly. Which can only be a good thing, right?&nbsp;
Unfortunately, it seems many brands are guilty either unintentionally, or in the more sinister cases knowingly, of greenwashing. It&rsquo;s a serious case of all talk and no action. But for every guilty greenwasher, there&rsquo;s people innovating and making a real impact. We&rsquo;re exploring three companies that are doing it right, so you can too.
<h4>Patagonia</h4>
It&rsquo;s difficult to have a conversation about sustainable companies without mentioning Patagonia. They&rsquo;re doing it well and they&rsquo;ve been doing it a while. In 2019 they even received the UN Champion of the Earth award in the Outstanding Entrepreneurial Vision category. So why are they considered a leader in sustainability? Their eco mandate is based on three main pillars: product, donations and activism.
Product: They run a programme called the &lsquo; Worn Wear Program&rsquo;, an online shop where customers can buy and sell second hand Patagonia products. This encourages customers to buy used products rather than new ones, reducing the volume of new products entering the cycle. They&rsquo;re also using sustainable materials in their products; their cotton is certified organic, a high proportion of their fabrics are made from recycled fabrics and some are even blue sign certified.
Donations: Patagonia are also very well known for their philanthropic endeavours. Their 1% for the planet programme is a case in point and ensures that 1% of the company&rsquo;s annual sales goes to good causes. Plus, the programme encourages other companies to join the pledge with current members including fellow eco-warriors Honest Tea and Boxed Water.
Activism:They&rsquo;re also not afraid to put it all on the line to get behind a cause they care about. In the past few years, they&rsquo;ve put aside traditional promotional marketing in exchange for activism promotion. They&rsquo;ve even made a few headlines with their political campaigns including <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/billfischer/2020/09/22/patagonia-believes-we-should-vote-the-assholes-out-what-issues-move-your-organization/?sh=3dbd55734f80">Vote the a**holes out</a>, or <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?next_url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2fnews%2fmorning-mix%2fwp%2f2017%2f12%2f05%2fthe-president-stole-your-land-patagonia-rei-blast-trump-on-national-monument-rollbacks%2f">The President stole your land</a>. Their campaigns are often connected to petitions that actually help move the needle.
Lesson in sustainability:There&rsquo;s more than one way to skin a cat. You shouldn&rsquo;t just lean into one sustainable practice and be done with it. Think about how you incorporate sustainability into every aspect of your company and culture.
<h4>&Oslash;rsted</h4>
Hailed as &lsquo;the world&rsquo;s most sustainable company&rsquo; &Oslash;rsted have made it their mission to create a world that runs entirely on green energy. Over the last ten years they&rsquo;ve transformed themselves from one of Europe's most carbon intensive companies to a leader in clean, green energy. They achieved the shift by taking the lead in the acceleration of the phasing out of fossil-fuelled power generation. Now, they&rsquo;re on track to become carbon neutral by 2025. &Oslash;rsted is also taking decarbonisation beyond their own walls, targeting net-zero emissions across their entire carbon footprint by 2040, which they'll do by decarbonising supply chains, improving biodiversity protection and creating shared value with local communities.
Lesson in sustainability:It&rsquo;s never too late to turn things around. Set yourself goals and pivot your practices one by one to reach them. Small wins pile up and before you know it you could also be one of the world's most sustainable companies.
<h4>Notpla</h4>
Notpla is leading the charge in eliminating single use plastics with their sustainable packaging. All their products are made from one of nature's most renewable resources: brown seaweed. Seaweed grows up to 1m per day, doesn&rsquo;t compete with food crops, doesn&rsquo;t need fresh water or fertiliser and actively contributes to de-acidifying our oceans. The material biodegrades in six to eight weeks and is suitable for home composting, allowing them to literally create a water bottle you can eat. You can encase any liquid you desire in their jelly-like membrane made of algae and calcium chloride, which they call an Ooho. They even trialled the concept at the London Marathon in 2019 and eliminated the use of plastic bottles and cups at the event. Notpla are in their infancy in comparison to the other companies on this list - so what are their next steps? Well, they&rsquo;ve set themselves a goal of eliminating the one billion plastic bottles reaching our oceans every year, and the 300 million kilograms of carbon emissions that go with them. Notpla plans to lease their Ooho machines to businesses so they can produce and fill Oohos daily on-site, rather than taking up storage space (and delivery miles) with stock. Best of all, as well as using nine times less energy to produce, Ooho has the potential to be cost competitive with plastic.
Lesson in sustainability: You don&rsquo;t need to be a massive company with limitless budget and reach to make an impact. It&rsquo;s about ingenuity, purpose and commitment. Where there&rsquo;s a will there&rsquo;s a way and really great ideas make a massive impact.

The Greenwashing Trap: Lessons in Sustainability From the Brands Doing it Right

<h2 style="text-align: center;">A message from our Co-founders.&nbsp;</h2>

Since we launched <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Huckletree</a> in 2014, we have strived to make sure that being environmentally conscious played a part in all of our decisions. For example, our very first space in Clerkenwell was awarded a Silver SKA rating, and with that became the very first coworking space in the UK to achieve this high standard - something we&rsquo;re really proud of to this day. For the launch of all subsequent spaces, we&rsquo;ve made sure to work with developers who are committed to sustainability, and with architects and designers who are best-positioned to keep sustainability at the foreground of their design ethos. Then, once our spaces launch, we look to only partner with the most sustainable brands and suppliers to bring them to life. And to go even a step further, in 2017, our in-house cafes, and all of our events have been fully vegetarian. Finally, last year we successfully managed to eliminate single-use plastics across our 200,000 sf of our spaces. Needless to say, the work continues.

And, as we all know, sustainability has never been such a polarizing topic, from early-stage business all the way to bigger corporates. We&rsquo;ve seen the trend in &lsquo;sustainable businesses&rsquo; sky-rocket too; with more Green and Cleantech businesses entering our community due to the growing concern around the lack of action on the climate crisis, and the increasing urgency to develop new tools and technologies to help us fight climate change. But we feel like this is just the beginning of a much bigger movement; where consumers are demanding more from the business they buy from and voting with their feet (and wallet) if they don&rsquo;t get it. Right now, we're living through one of the bigger consumer revolts in our history.&nbsp;

Facing this, the GreenTech space is exploding with responses and we&rsquo;re seeing an urgent rise in members who have successfully transitioned to B-Corp or are in the process of doing so. These businesses, who have committed to acting in the best interest of all stakeholders and not just their shareholders, are demonstrative of the changing tide and the growing belief that the old way of doing business is no longer serving our planet.&nbsp;

The urgency is growing, but so is the movement; with more and more businesses and leaders coming together to help, and who are fighting to make significant change. There is a growing sense of urgency, but coupled with a growing sentiment that together we can create change.&nbsp;
Whilst all of us in the startup ecosystem must consider our place and how we can help - we must also realise that each and every one of us are in the position to help turn the tide. And we must fight to play our unique, individual roles in the growing movement around Climate Action.
As such, we will be opening a Net Zero, Sustainable Planet themed workspace in London for the most exciting investors, businesses and brands in the sustainability sector to work alongside one another, ideate, collaborate. This will be a new hub, adding to our growing portfolio of spaces across the UK and Ireland and we aim to launch this hub in 2022.&nbsp;

If Earthrise Summit has taught us anything it&rsquo;s that if you&rsquo;re an investor, entrepreneur, corporate brand, educator, student&hellip;.we all have a part to play in tackling the climate challenge. The more we can debate, learn and co-solve together, the faster business leaders can embed these principles into their work and culture to make a material difference. Off the back of an incredible one day summit we thought, imagine what we could collectively achieve if this was every day, in real time and in real space. This is why we wanted to create a space dedicated to building a more sustainable planet.&nbsp;

The Net Zero hub will be a true ecosystem of D2C disruptors, B2B experts, tech innovation, human ideas and capital, all tackling the climate challenge crisis from various angles, but all under the one roof and all connected by the wider Huckletree network.&nbsp;

If you would like to be involved in our first Net Zero hub, please get in touch: info@huckletree.com&nbsp;

Huckletree Co-founders
Gabriela Hersham and Andrew Lynch&nbsp;

Announcement: Net Zero Themed Workspace

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Where do corporates send their staff when they want them to flourish? Coworking spaces.</h2>
According to <a href="https://www.gensler.com/14-percent-of-corporate-workers-use-coworking-spaces">a 2019 survey by the Gensler Research Institute</a>, workers who have access to a coworking space &ndash;&nbsp;even if they only use it for a few hours a week &ndash;&nbsp;typically perform better than employees who don&rsquo;t have that same perk. Often thought of as spaces for freelancers and founders to set up shop, many corporates now see coworking spaces as an essential ingredient when it comes to driving innovation. <a href="https://www.knightfrank.co.uk/office-space/insights/culture-and-space/not-just-for-startups-the-rise-of-coworking-corporates">Knight Frank says</a> that 44% of global companies expect flexible space will make up at least a fifth of their office space by the end of next year.
&nbsp;
<h4>Seeking a startup mindset</h4>
Corporates who want to strike new partnerships or launch new products and services &ldquo;really want to be able to [...] think like entrepreneurs&rdquo;, Emma Mills-Sheffield, founder of business consultancy Mindsetup, observes. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s really hard to think entrepreneurially when you&rsquo;re really burdened with red-tape, hierarchy, and approval [processes].&rdquo;&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Getting out of the office and into an environment that emphasises collaboration, not just between team members but across organisations, she says, can be the key to empowering staff to adopt the elusive entrepreneurial mindset. &ldquo;Giving them exposure to other businesses and how entrepreneurs work &ndash; there&rsquo;s a richness to that. You can get a bit stuck between the four walls [of the HQ].&rdquo;
&nbsp;
To make the most of a hybrid model where the home, the HQ, and collaborative hubs are all part of the workspace mix, Ms Mills-Sheffield says it&rsquo;s crucial to figure out where &ndash; among the options available &ndash; different types of work can be carried out most effectively. This could mean recognising &ndash; within each organisation &ndash; the most consequential social network brokers, which is to say those players who will benefit the most from making new connections and discovering opportunities to partner with entrepreneurs. Alternatively, it could mean identifying which teams are going to find being situated in a creative environment most useful.
&nbsp;
<h4>A bold way to build</h4>
For Accenture&rsquo;s FinTech Innovation Lab, when it comes to helping start-ups hit their next stage of growth and create connections in the financial services world, coworking has long been or the team a no brainer. The 12-week accelerator programme has been successfully held at Huckletree's Shoreditch for a few years now.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&ldquo;We decided to go for a coworking space because it takes you out of that corporate mindset,&rdquo; says Celin Phoen, the FinTech Innovation Lab&rsquo;s programme manager. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really underplayed how a physical space can change your attitude, and it&rsquo;s fun being [somewhere] that is very open plan, has a lot of greenery and colour, and events going on where you can meet people from different businesses.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
For Ms Phoen, the ability to move between different working environments within the same building not only provides the headspace needed to think more creatively but it also makes it easier to create the connections the Lab needs to work as effectively as possible. Instead of fighting for meeting rooms in a traditional HQ, communal events spaces like <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/hubs/hire-event-spaces" rel="follow">The Classroom</a> provide a neutral ground for corporates and startups to convene for workshops and demo days, and share ideas and fresh perspectives.
&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s estimated that 40% of demand for coworking spaces is now coming from large corporates, with the likes of Adidas, American Express, and Microsoft currently seeking spaces outside of their HQs to help nurture inspiration.
&nbsp;
&ldquo;Most corporates are focussed around efficiency, whereas Huckletree is fostering creativity and collaboration,&rdquo; Ms Phoen concludes. &ldquo;It speaks to innovation so much more than your classic workspace.&rdquo;

A Startup State of Mind: Why innovation at any size thrives in coworking spaces

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Is working from home good for creativity?&nbsp;</h2>
<a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2020/andy-haldane-engaging-business-summit-and-autumn-lecture" style="color: #236fa1;">Speaking in October</a>, the Bank of England&rsquo;s chief economist Andy Haldane shared his perspective about it. Without the opportunity for people to bump into each other around the office, he argued, we are starved of the raw ingredients required to stimulate creativity. &ldquo;Homeworking means serendipity is supplanted by scheduling, face-to-face by Zoom-to-Zoom,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;What creativity is gained in improved tunnelling [focus] is lost in the darkness of the tunnel itself.&rdquo;

<h4>The loss of serendipity: What&rsquo;s the cost?</h4>
It&rsquo;s easy to figure out how much money a company could save by scrapping its office space. But it&rsquo;s far harder to put a figure on what a business loses when its employees can&rsquo;t interact in the same room as each other &ndash; and the potential knock-on effects can be wide-ranging.

Many workers report <a href="https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/careers/loneliness-working-from-home-remote-how-to-cope-wellbeing-mental-health/418948" style="color: #236fa1;">experiencing loneliness</a> due to working from home during the pandemic; mental health-related absences could increase if staff aren&rsquo;t given enough opportunities to socialise.&nbsp;

It might also be an issue of access and development: for team members who already struggle with feelings of marginalisation, isolation could hinder career progression. According to McKinsey, knowledge workers typically spend 14% of their week chatting to other team members &ndash;&nbsp;and that non-verbal cues have a more significant impact on building a positive impression.
Chance encounters outside formal meetings are a way for employees to build up the rapport needed to land exciting projects or even promotions. What happens to their potential in a WFH world?&nbsp;

&ldquo;Zoom is okay for holding a pattern, but it&rsquo;s not good if you want to get ahead, and it&rsquo;s especially not good for those who historically have not been [represented],&rdquo; Martin Kilduff, Professor of Management at the UCL School of Management says. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t have the opportunity to make their presence felt in a way that would be true if [they] were in the workplace itself. You can hold water &ndash;&nbsp;but it&rsquo;s difficult to make the connections or impressions that are going to change your role in the organisation.&rdquo;

Serendipity, described as &ldquo;value creation based on unexpected encounters&rdquo; by Sebastian Olma in his book The Serendipity Machine, is widely considered one of the driving forces behind innovation and motivation at companies. Whenever workers bump into each other when making a cup of tea, cross paths as they come in and out of the building, or end up sitting with teammates from different departments at lunch, they increase the likelihood of joining the dots in new, unexpected, and exciting ways. If they don&rsquo;t keep building this valuable social capital, their creative capabilities may eventually peter out.&nbsp;

<h4>Design for serendipity</h4>
While individual moments of serendipity are impossible to grasp and replicate, strategically designing a workplace to encourage those events is far from out of reach.&nbsp;

Having this goal in mind, Apple&rsquo;s co-founder Steve Jobs famously decided not to separate his design and engineering teams; instead, he allowed them to bounce ideas around together.&nbsp;

A similar perspective is also why Google packs its offices with restaurants, kitchens, and snack stations, giving workers many excuses to stop, nibble, and chat as possible. For instance, <a href="https://99u.adobe.com/articles/16408/how-to-build-a-collaborative-office-space-like-pixar-and-google" style="color: #236fa1;">according to Adobe</a>, you are never more than 150 feet away from food on Google&rsquo;s New York City campus.

But an open-plan design and an abundance of communal areas are not the only things required to encourage serendipitous social interactions. In many cases, a cultural shift is necessary, too.

Humans will naturally gravitate towards what and who they are comfortable with. Still, true serendipity requires people to continuously seek social interactions across an organisation, not just with people they already know.

&ldquo;It actually takes somebody with an unusual talent to be able to say, wait a minute, what you&rsquo;re saying is going to be useful for the people I was talking to yesterday,&rdquo; Martin explains. &ldquo;These social network brokers can translate that idea and pass it on to the other group. Without those people, all this rearranging of the office is not really going to do that much.&rdquo;

At Huckletree, we see providing that brokering service as a massive part of our role. Our curation committee looks at the dynamics and chemistry within each of our communities, and every programme we deliver is borne out of what we see happening each day on the ground with our members.&nbsp;

We want our members to create through serendipity as much value as possible &ndash; our Huckletree Connects programme and Pure Joy events are ways for members to find common interests with people outside their organisations. Moreover, our Growth Services, which include office hours and founder consultations, help us explore what our members are working on and understand how we can facilitate mutually beneficial connections.&nbsp;

While in lockdown, 89% of founders and startup talent we surveyed said they missed their work friends. This datum doesn&rsquo;t account simply for not being able to see familiar faces; it&rsquo;s also referred to the interactions that spark ideas, which drive forward momentum &ndash; an aspect that every business needs support with right now while life and the economy are slowing down.&nbsp;

We at Huckletree think it&rsquo;s a formula that works. &ldquo;My favourite part about working at Huckletree is how the environment really allows for creativity,&rdquo; Huckletree West member and Reckitt Benckiser senior brand manager Sandra Toivo says. &ldquo;Whenever I [have] a big piece of strategic work looming, I would plan a day at Huckletree to ensure I place myself in the right atmosphere to think outside of the box.&rdquo;

Huckletree&rsquo;s recognised secret ingredient is precisely that: the energy and commitment we put into championing each and every one of our members and equipping them for success.&nbsp;

We strongly believe a workspace isn&rsquo;t just about having a desk and a decent wifi connection; it&rsquo;s about creating a solid and supportive community where every win is celebrated. No mind is an island &ndash;&nbsp;and by bringing together ambitious startups and progressive enterprise teams, everybody can get where they are going faster.

Chasing serendipity: the (unexpected) inspirational power of the workplace

Gregory Dewerpe, A/O Proptech's founder, could well be a Renaissance man, such is the ease with which he moves between technical and philosophical topics, with every thought strung together seamlessly, much like an alfresco Davincian stroll.

We sat down with Gregory just ahead of his fireside chat at Earthrise Summit to dive deep into some pretty existential matters, and we don&rsquo;t necessarily mean that metaphorically.
<h4> </h4>
<h4>Gregory, you have said in the past that one great motivator for you is wanting to make an impact, getting the most out of the time we have on this Earth. Why have you chosen RE as a preferred area on which to leave your mark?</h4>

A large portion of our lives is spent in a professional capacity.&nbsp;

I have always held the conviction that my career path must eventually enable me to achieve my professional ambitions as much as my more philosophical ones and provide me with a platform for positive change.

Real estate technology is a means to an end for me; it&rsquo;s where I found the opportunity to express this multi-layered ambition of mine. And the reason is clear:

Real estate is the largest class in the world; it&rsquo;s over half of the world&rsquo;s assets. Real Estate surrounds us all; it&rsquo;s where you live (housing is the single largest expenditure in people budgets), where you work, where you play, where you learn. It&rsquo;s everything around you. It&rsquo;s the built environment.

It&rsquo;s also an industry where technology penetration is marginal. More importantly, it&rsquo;s also the most polluting asset class in the world (40% of global greenhouse gas emission,&nbsp; 30% of global raw material consumption).

This unique combination of size, a technological lag, and overall inefficiencies make the transformation of this mammoth industry a generational opportunity for investors, technologists, environmentalists and landlords.

I genuinely believe it can be one of the most powerful and influential platforms to ignite change and make a positive impact, much beyond the industry itself.

Imagine a world where you can build better, greener, faster and cheaper thanks to technology and science. Right there, you solve the housing shortage and affordability tensions and address the huge global issue of climate change. Imagine a world where landlords leverage data to service their tenants smartly and offer them a frictionless experience, healthy living and buildings, flexibility, and transparency.&nbsp;

That&rsquo;s what real estate technology is about for me. The entire lifecycle of an asset (office, home, apartment, hotels, logistics etc.) can be improved, end to end: from the material supply chain to the design and architecture, the construction, the operations and the transactions. It&rsquo;s a lot of innovation to unpack!&nbsp;

We are in the early innings of a massive innovation wave (an unstoppable one). Because innovation promotes more innovation in a world of distributed knowledge and access, it&rsquo;s never been a greater time to be an entrepreneur, and things will accelerate exponentially.&nbsp;

I am not running a non-profit fund by any means, but I think nowadays, profit and purpose need to go hand in hand. We must all try our hardest to do well by doing good, regardless of our industry. With proptech, we can do exactly that.
<h4> </h4>
<h4>Architecture, in broad terms, has often been described as a&nbsp;material&nbsp;language. What should define the spaces of the future, and what messages should we embed in our living and working environments? &nbsp;</h4>

Architecture is much more than materials; it&rsquo;s defining the space, the dynamics and the energy that surrounds us 24/7. It&rsquo;s one of the most critical aspects of our well-being, our climate, friendliness and our safety as a society.&nbsp;

Building buildings that promote healthy, sustainable and positive living is going to be one of the most critical missions of our generation. For starters, leveraging design to build better, faster and cheaper helps solve a lot of the affordability and accessibility issues that currently contribute to the housing crisis that we are facing.

Designing buildings to promote healthy and positive living and privileging bio-diversity, and being more in sync with the surrounding natural habitat is essential. Not only do we need to be more respectful of our surroundings when building,&nbsp; but we also need to build assets that can withstand the effects of extreme weather.

We are in the early innings of this, and I strongly believe that with the suitable investment in science and technology, architecture will play a defining role in the future of our built world.
 
<h4>How do you resist the temptation of the "beaten path"? In other words, how do you nurture that underdog vision that has made you who you are, and what fuels your entrepreneurial drive and passion for what you do?</h4>

I love being an underdog; that is where I find the motivation to challenge myself, to surprise others and hopefully offer some inspiration to the people who have been made to believe they are not good enough or can&rsquo;t achieve what they want.

Early on in my life, I faced life-defining challenges, having to fight a rare long-term illness and then, later on, suffering tremendously from the devastating effects of bullying as a young boy.&nbsp;

However hard the journey has been, it was a blessing in disguise because it taught me to be resilient, grow a thick skin, and find motivation in adversity by always focusing on the positive side of life. It&rsquo;s not always easy or straight forward but that&rsquo;s what makes life exciting and so rewarding, in my opinion. More than 30 years later, it still fuels me every day.&nbsp;

I didn&rsquo;t get through all of this to just get by in life. It would be unfair to my younger self or my parents, who fought and sacrificed so much to fight for me early on in life. So that&rsquo;s my fuel, my motivation and my inspiration.&nbsp;

Despite being the largest proptech VC in Europe, even today, A/O PropTech can be viewed as the underdog. I came as an outsider in the venture capital industry, raising the eyebrows of doubters and people who expect you to fail. The jury is still out there for us, we are only at the beginning of our journey and we have this extra motivation to prove ourselves and prove the doubters wrong. I think it makes us extra hungry, extra motivated and aligns us with our portfolio companies even more.
 
<h4>You are very committed to fighting bullying, not to oversimplify; still, one could argue that, from a purely behavioural perspective, our attitude towards the planet is a form of bullying or abuse? Would you agree? How can we best promote change? How can the built environment (and space more generally), our attitude towards it, and the tools we employ to develop and shape it make a difference and enable tangible action towards a more sustainable future?</h4>

I would not compare this to bullying. It would undermine how terrible bullying is and probably overcomplicate the climate change issue.

Climate change is first and foremost an education issue; people simply don&rsquo;t really understand what climate change means, and when they do, they don&rsquo;t always comprehend it in tangible ways and therefore tackle it efficiently.&nbsp;

We have a tendency to focus on the wrong problems which, in the end, have a limited impact in the context of global climate change. Consequently, we end up missing out on the elephant in the room.

Real estate is a perfect example. If you read the news, people talk about aviation or agriculture as the mega culprits for climate change. In fact, real estate is much more harmful than all of those combined and more, yet until recently, it was not a focus point in the fight against climate change.&nbsp;

Real Estate is 40% of GHG emissions. Imagine if you enhance it by 25%, you wipe out 10% of global emissions. That in itself will be much more impactful than any other measure in other industries. I am not suggesting that we shouldn&rsquo;t focus on the other issues as well, but we have to make sure we allocate capital, time and resources to the most impactful problems as time is running out and we need to show progress fast.&nbsp;

As mentioned, every aspect of a building is contributing to climate change:&nbsp;

<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">the materials used to build and their supply chain</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">its design and architecture&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">the construction process&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">the operations</li>
</ul>

All of these stages within the building lifecycle are now seeing the brightest entrepreneurs develop amazing technologies which will enable drastic reduction of carbon footprint on assets, with the goal of this eventually reaching zero. So that&rsquo;s where we try to spend a lot of our time as a firm because it&rsquo;s possibly the biggest opportunity of our lifetime.&nbsp;
<h4>How can we encourage the Real Estate industry to engage with Tech and how essential is this in reaching decarbonisation goals?</h4>

Education, capital and adoption are essential. Equally, regulators, investors and customers are pressuring the industry to change, so it leaves them no choice in my opinion. There is no way out from this movement. Real estate companies are being faced with three choices:&nbsp;

<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do nothing and get ready to become obsolete within the next decades.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do the bare minimum to satisfy regulators, investors and customers and get by.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Embrace the opportunity to lead the way and drive fundamental change by not only adopting technology but by investing into technology and science, learning to fail forward and adapt their culture, strategy and talent to become the leader in a followers industry.&nbsp;</li>
</ol>

I am very hopeful that we will see change in the next decade, not because we have to but because we want to. I hope that we come to accept the responsibility upon us and put profit and purpose on equal footing.

“Real Estate surrounds us all, it’s also the most polluting asset class in the world.” In conversation with Gregory Dewerpe, A/O Proptech

<h2 style="text-align: center;">2020 was a rough year for early-stage start-ups. On that, we can all agree.</h2>
&nbsp;Eager to help new founders get off to a good start in 2021, in December, we decided to launch a search for two teams to become our Entrepreneurs in Residence at our White City and Ancoats hubs.&nbsp;
We set out to find the most exciting new names in food tech, fashion, and media and lend a much-needed hand. After an overwhelming response,, we narrowed down over 50 finalists to two very worthy winners. We&rsquo;re very proud to introduce you to Huckletree West&rsquo;s new food tech vanguards <a href="https://www.reformedcharacters.com/">Reformed Characters</a> and Ancoats local force for good <a href="https://manchesterfashionmovement.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Manchester Fashion Movement</a>.
From Naomi Campbell to Miley Cyrus, more and more of us are embracing the low or no-alcohol lifestyle; Reformed Characters&rsquo; founder Daniel is making his mark on this growing industry by not just producing a tasty offering but by encouraging consumers to celebrate the benefits of mindful drinking.&nbsp;
Both ladies over at Manchester Fashion Movement are fashion entrepreneurs in their own right, with Alison founding <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sustainablefashionparty/?hl=en" style="color: #236fa1;">Sustainable Fashion Party</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/allypallyvintage/?hl=en" style="color: #236fa1;">AllyPally Vintage</a> and Camilla spearheading&nbsp; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wardrobe_wellbeing_/" style="color: #236fa1;">Wardrobe Wellbeing</a>. Being extremely passionate about second-hand ethical clothing, they decided to combine their shared wealth of knowledge and experience to create MFM, an educational, collaborative collective on a mission to future proof our world through fashion.&nbsp;
We&rsquo;re excited to have these two impressive companies looking to positively impact our everyday lives by championing mindful consumption, be it bubbly or bell bottoms. We caught up with the founders to find out a little more about where they come from, where they&rsquo;re going, and what their plans are for the next twelve months.&nbsp;

Here&rsquo;s what they had to say.
<h4> What inspired you to start your own business?</h4>

Daniel: 
I have worked in design for food and FMCG for many years, and I always knew I wanted to start a food brand of my own, but I wanted to wait until I felt really passionate about something. After trying a few Dry Januarys and Sober Octobers, I pretty much stopped drinking entirely and couldn&rsquo;t believe the fantastic benefits of mindful drinking and sobriety. I was also surprised by how little brands in the non-alcoholic space were really speaking about it and what was driving such a large amount of people to moderate or stop drinking. From my own experience, I also felt a distinct lack of products in the non-alcoholic category, so I set out to create my own with Reformed Characters&reg;.&nbsp;
 Alison &amp; Camilla: 
We set up Manchester Fashion Movement (MFM) during the first lockdown; two sustainability advocates who wanted to build something we were passionate about, during a time of shifting expectations and significant major adjustments. Our Community Interest Company is here to enable communities in Greater Manchester better understand the impact of the fashion industry and recognise the benefits of a more responsible approach to consumerism. We wanted to create something which was positive, made a difference and reached more people. 
<h4>What does being Huckletree&rsquo;s Entrepreneur in Residence mean to you?</h4>
Daniel:&nbsp;
I&rsquo;m really looking forward to working with the team at Huckletree on our plans for investment and scaling, and also connecting some more with the community here at Huckletree West. I&rsquo;m very conscious of building Reformed Characters&reg; as a community-focused brand that consumers genuinely want to engage with and gain value from &ndash;&nbsp; a huge part of that is in having a great group of people around you.

Alison &amp; Camilla:&nbsp;
Being at Huckletree will give us the business support we need to effectively scale up Manchester Fashion Movement. It will help us develop a platform with better functionality to ensure we can monetize our offering and maintain a sustainable business model. It will enable us to start spreading the MFM messages within Huckletree, the wider community and across a more B2B environment. Having a central base gives us a presence in the city which we are supporting and allows us to immerse ourselves in what's happening around us. It&rsquo;s going to be a game-changer.

<h4>Where would you like to see yourselves a year from now?</h4>
Daniel: 
A year from now, I would like to see us having brought a strong first product to market, having raised investment, and gaining listings in key grocers and retailers. I have huge ambitions for Reformed Characters&reg; and how it can add value to people's lives within the mindful drinking and non-alcoholic scene, so I will equally be looking to see how the brand can enhance consumers&rsquo; lifestyle and experiences.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Alison &amp; Camilla: 
A year from now, we would hope to be in a position to have gathered the rich quality information we need to spark change. We want to be able to offer employment opportunities within the Greater Manchester area, and help individuals develop their skillset by creating a mini MFM team. We aim at having a strong strategy in place to ensure our business outcomes are met, and we have continued success. MFM will be the go to movement when striving for a more sustainable lifestyle; a recognised way to help people make a difference in their lives, starting with their clothing choices. &ldquo;Future-proofing our world through fashion&rdquo;

<h4>What&rsquo;s the most challenging and most exciting thing about having your own business?</h4>
Daniel: 
I would say the most challenging thing is the sheer overwhelm which can often hit when you think of how many roles you have to be split across when you are a solo founder in a startup. From accounting, to investment, product development, marketing and sales &ndash; you need to be able to get a good grip across all of them, initially at least. The most exciting thing is crafting a brand and product yourself, and the potential of where that can take you, the sky really is the limit for startups, but sometimes it&rsquo;s a juggling act of reigning some of that ambition in and saying what is achievable in the here and now.&nbsp;

Alison &amp; Camilla: 
Having realistic expectations can feel tough and wanting to do everything all at once but remembering what&rsquo;s actually possible! The most exciting thing? Experiencing flourishing ideas and dreams that can become a reality. That does feel pretty special.
&nbsp;
<h4>What support will you be seeking from your new community at Huckletree?&nbsp;</h4>
Daniel: 
I would love to engage with the community as much as possible. Especially with things like the tasting of the product as it develops.&nbsp;
 Alison &amp; Camilla: 
We would really benefit from insights on how to find investment, monetize our offering, scale-up at a sensible pace, and provide some tech support to add and improve the functionality of our website.
Also, as we are new to forming a CIC, guidance in this specific area would be appreciated.
&nbsp;
<h4>Are there any businesses or fellow entrepreneurs that really inspire you?&nbsp;</h4>
Daniel: 
Within my own category, I look at brands like BrewDog and how they have managed to take on industry giants, and make sizeable waves in their own right. They know they can&rsquo;t compete with the titanic drinks groups on marketing spend and advertising, so when they do it, it is intelligent, gets people talking, and feels right for their audience &ndash; they are a seriously clever brand.
Alison &amp; Camilla: 
Jennifer Neff, Co-Founder of Elemental Software. The business model is amazing and Jennifers drive to succeed is inspiring. Vandana Shiva - honestly, inspirational in every way. Also Mary Portas. We love her direct and solution-based approach.

<h4>As a founder, what was the most valuable lesson you learned from the challenges of 2020?</h4>
&nbsp;
Daniel: 
I think so many of us could quite happily consider 2020 a write-off. I think it was a year (and still is) where any of us could happily lean into those easier negative emotions and habits. I think we have all learnt resilience and how we can make the most of a pretty bad situation, be that mentally or physically. I heard this quote this morning which I think sums it up for me "So many problems happen because we&rsquo;re doing something in the moment, which in the future, we&rsquo;ll wish we hadn&rsquo;t."
Alison &amp; Camilla: 
We have learnt resilience; what may feel like a negative at the time can shape your future. Inner strength is everything!

Keep up with our EIR&rsquo;s on their journey<a href="https://us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=b580e24ea4"> here</a>. Interested in helping the founders on their journey - <a href="https://twitter.com/huckletree">reach out, we&rsquo;d love to hear from you</a>. For now, here&rsquo;s to a promising 2021.

Introducing our Entrepreneurs in Residence 2021

<h2 style="text-align: center;">A truth universal to parents everywhere: it&rsquo;s a big adjustment returning to full time work post-parental leave. The job you return to might be familiar, but your sleep pattern and home life have completely changed. How about returning from maternity leave in the middle of a global pandemic, when the future of your industry has been thrown into turmoil and the state of play has rapidly and radically shifted?</h2>
 Our Huckletree D2 General Manager Ais has been with us since 2017, when we launched our Dublin hub. She went on maternity leave back at the end of September 2019, three weeks before her son Conall was due &ndash;&nbsp;a few months before coronavirus became the zeitgeist of 2020. While we&rsquo;ve all had lots to adapt to, Ais has a slightly different perspective, having rejoined the business as we visualise and prepare for a very different future.
I spoke to her about lockdown with a newborn, coming back to Huckletree during the biggest health crisis since World War II, and the importance of mindfulness in times of uncertainty.

<h3>ON GOING ON MATERNITY LEAVE&hellip;</h3>
&ldquo;It felt strange to be logging off for nine months. Huckletree was my baby for two years, and as General Manager I had launched and grown the business in Dublin with the team. Walking away from it for such a long time was hard. Handing over the GM reins was tough but I also knew that it was time for me to start my exciting new role as a parent.&rdquo;
<h3> ON COPING AS A NEW PARENT DURING LOCKDOWN&hellip;</h3>
&ldquo;Isolation can be prevalent among new parents as most of the first few weeks are spent at home with your baby. Moving from a fast paced routine focused on productivity and ticking off to-do lists into a slow-paced life was quite hard! By the time lockdown came along in March I had adjusted to spending more time at home and so it honestly wasn&rsquo;t that much of a shock to the system. It was harder for my partner Matthew as he is a teacher and he had to teach online from our bedroom! Not being able to see our families was difficult for both of us, as our parents and siblings are our support system. It&rsquo;s great having them back as babysitters now!&rdquo;
<h3> ON RETURNING TO THE BUSINESS DURING COVID-19&hellip;</h3>
&ldquo;The pandemic has meant that we have all had to rethink the way we work and live. We have all missed human connection and shared workspaces like Huckletree serve such an important purpose in bringing people back together. People are starting to come back to work now and there is great excitement in the air as we all catch up with each other&hellip;&rdquo;
<h3> ON THE FUTURE OF THE SHARED WORKSPACE&hellip;</h3>
&ldquo;Most of the working population have now experienced the pros and cons of working from home. Companies will be less willing to enter into long leases and will most likely offer more flexible working arrangements as a result. Coworking will be more appealing to more companies and individuals now. I don&rsquo;t think smaller teams and individuals will work from home forever. People strive for purpose and belonging to a collective group like Huckletree allows them to fulfill this desire.&rdquo;
<h3> ON HOLDING REGULAR YOGA SESSIONS AT D2&hellip;</h3>
&ldquo;In times of crisis, it&rsquo;s natural to be swept up in external noise and absorb anxiety. We forget to slow down and rest. It&rsquo;s so important to step away from the screens at regular intervals during the day. Yoga helps people to stay present through focusing on the breath, body and mind. You become very self-aware through regular practise and learn to reduce negative self-talk. Many of our daily routines simply disappeared during lockdown and now is a great time to get back to the mat and start being kind to ourselves again.&rdquo; 
<h3>ON BEING BACK AT HUCKLETREE&hellip;</h3>
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve missed people, conversations and good coffee! Huckletree D2 has all three in abundance, so it&rsquo;s great to be back!&rdquo;

Ais, it&rsquo;s great to have you back, flying the Huckletree flag in Dublin. For the D2ers out there, head down to The Studio every Monday at 1PM for some suitably-distanced weekly yoga sessions. New parent or not, it&rsquo;s more important than ever to find time for yourself.

Radical Change: Returning From Maternity Leave In A Pandemic 

<h2 style="text-align: center;">My whole life I have eaten tuna. It&rsquo;s been integral to my lunch for as long as I can remember - and I&rsquo;m not alone.</h2>
The UK alone consumes &pound;5.7 billion worth of fish and seafood products every year. For the first time the other day, I realised I was hesitant when reaching for that familiar tin. Let me explain: it occured after viewing documentary of the moment, Seaspiracy, which seeks to expose the fishing industries&rsquo; impact on the world's oceans - creating passionate vegetarians and detractors alike in its wake.&nbsp;

This Earth Day, I&rsquo;ve been reflecting on the 2021 theme: Restore Our Earth, which focuses on innovative thinking to restore the planet&rsquo;s ecosystem. As we begin to make moves to restore and rebuild in a post-COVID world,&nbsp;
<h3> DIVE IN</h3>
As the high profile doc continues to gain traction, there will no doubt be many more like myself following suit with similar reevaluations of our lifestyle choices. This is a shocking, brutal and bleak watch. You are forced to see cruelty and disregard on such a scale you wonder how the ecosystem of the sea hasn&rsquo;t already collapsed. But, one can&rsquo;t deny that it is eye opening and stirring, currently holding the number one watched spot in many countries on Netflix. Ali Tabrizi, the filmmaker, says his ultimate goal was &lsquo;to create a global discussion around the topic of food choice and sustainability, that effects change on a personal, industrial and governmental level.&rsquo; Well, he&rsquo;s certainly achieved the first element. I generally think of myself as proactive in my contributions to reduce my impact on the environment. However, my long-held tuna habit definitely questioned after the viewing. Afterwards, I started researching tuna fishing and ended up with a much deeper understanding of the impact fishing as an industry has on the environment.

<h3> WIDENING THE NET: INSIDE THE CONTROVERSY</h3>
Firstly: no, I don&rsquo;t think Seaspiracy represents its facts and figures in the most impartial ways. Considering the documentary is produced by those behind Cowspiracy, there are times where the film loses its way, the transparency of the producers&rsquo; motives err towards pushing a vegan agenda and vilifying those who eat fish. But, you would be wrong to assume that this is the entire backbone of the documentary. It simply blemishes the integrity of something that doesn&rsquo;t need any hyperbole. There is a certain naivety behind the film&rsquo;s suggestion that we simply end fishing and that there is no such thing as a sustainable alternative. Not only does this dismiss organisations which are actually doing good and proving alternatives can be a success, it also disregards the many millions of people who rely on fishing as a means of living and don&rsquo;t make a dent on the fish stocks. If this makes people read up and reveal the inaccuracies and misrepresentations, it&rsquo;s challenged indifference, which is arguably better than denial and ignorance. Seaspiracy viewers might not necessarily walk away as fans of the film - but they can still become critics of a system that clearly has major flaws.

&nbsp;A lot of people I know who have viewed the documentary, have said they will never eat fish again. This, I suppose is a good start, if a lot of people reduce demand for a product ultimately the reduction in profit will make it less appealing to those big investors responsible for the majority of problems behind extensive fishing. But, unfortunately, there WILL always be a demand for fish, the money to be made will simply move elsewhere. Fish is a necessity for a lot of communities wellbeing, whether through diet or financially, there is no alternative. They would perish without the ability to fish. This is the point where the excitement of a documentary like this wears off, people become driven to make a change but that change is eventually viewed as having so little impact that there is very little point in sacrificing this element of your diet. When you see the selfishness and greed of those at the top, combined with the power, ruthlessness and money those people have, it is a bit of David and Goliath situation.&nbsp;
<h3> THE TAIL&nbsp;</h3>
Perhaps the main problem I have with Seaspiracy is that the main takeaway viewers will have is &lsquo;I will stop eating fish&rsquo;, as this is framed as the single and only thing one can do to help with the fishing crisis. That doesn&rsquo;t leave any room for alternative activism. So, what else CAN you do to help? 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The most effective way to enact change is unifying and creating pressure on those in power. Industrialised fishing is the real evil that&rsquo;s frequently given the blind eye by those in power. <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/challenges/sustainable-fishing/" style="color: #236fa1;">Sign up to and shout about this petition</a> for ocean protection via Greenpeace. If this were to be enforced, it could protect up to 30% of the world&rsquo;s oceans, allowing them the essential time to recover. We need to hold the fishing industries to account, as they have too much influence over governments. Bottom trawling needs to become an offence where the negatives of being caught outweigh the potential profits. Remember, recovery IS possible. It could even happen within a few decades if we take action right now.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Want to make an impact? Become aware of your footprint (try our pre-seed programme grad, <a href="https://www.evocco.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Evocco&rsquo;s</a> supermarket shopping monitoring app). A lot of things you throw away will end up in the ocean, plastic being the obvious one, and it all takes time to perish whilst simultaneously threatening the health of ocean residents. Disregard Seaspiracy if you find it too disingenuous, thanks to its scientific inaccuracies and misrepresentations, but remember that legitimate data on the impact of fishing has been publicly available for many years. Maybe some creative license was needed to force us to take action to ensure we can all enjoy the planet for years to come.</li>
</ul>
 
<h3>JOIN THE MOVEMENT FOR OUR PLANET&rsquo;S FUTURE</h3>
 Learn, listen and get inspired by innovation leaders, academics, politicians, campaigners and more at our first ever virtual, sustainability festival, Earthrise Summit on May 19th. Hear from the minds behind food businesses championing sustainability, including Iceland and Tony&rsquo;s Chocolonely, plus food waste campaigners Tristam Stuart and Saasha Celestial-One, Founder of Olio. <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit?utm_source=team+email+signature&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=summit_2021" style="color: #236fa1;">Book your ticket here</a>.

The Road to Earthrise | Review: Seaspiracy

<h2 style="text-align: center;">The roadmap out of lockdown has officially been given the green light from Boris.</h2>
Alongside the return of pub garden pints, it also signals the much-anticipated return to work for many businesses across the UK. Throughout lockdown, our spaces have stayed open to support our members who cannot work from home. Over the past weeks, we&rsquo;ve felt the building excitement and anticipation across the innovation ecosystem, and (socially distanced) buzz in our breakout spaces again, with new members joining and familiar faces returning.
 One of those Huckletree old hands is <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/spaces/ancoats" style="color: #236fa1;">Huckletree Ancoats</a> members, <a href="https://regital.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Regital</a>. Founded in 2011, they spotted the potential power of programmatic marketing early on and have gone on to build a high performance team which identifies new customers and creates conversion for clients including Gymshark, Rixo, Dr Martens and Mediacom. As they begin a staggered, celebratory return to our flagship Manchester workspace, I caught up with Culture Executive Sam Sharwin for the inside track on how they navigated the challenges of WFH, their perspective on the future of work and the big business challenge they&rsquo;re tackling in 2021.

<h3>Inside COVID</h3>
For many businesses, the almost-overnight move to working from home was a shock to the system - and systems (&ldquo;Sorry, you&rsquo;re still muted!&rdquo;). Others, however, had already had a taste of hybrid working, as Sam shares: 
<blockquote>
"We are somewhat fortunate at Regital, as we've always been flexible and the team were used to working remotely and at home long before the pandemic. It was relatively straightforward for us to go fully remote, without operational impact. At first there were naturally some adjustments when everyone started working from home all at once, but we quickly found a rhythm for regular touch points to keep connected, and we got used to seeing temporary work stations on kitchen tables, living rooms and in sheds.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
<h3> Real Life to Remote Culture</h3>
Whilst the physical transition may have been frictionless, for many, the biggest challenge was isolation. <a href="https://huckletree-asks.typeform.com/to/ptLax5nv" style="color: #236fa1;">In our 2020 survey</a> of 200+ founders and startup talent, 89% reported missing their workmates whilst working from home - something that resonates with Regital&rsquo;s experience. Culture is hugely important to the team (keep up with their new hires, birthdays and behind the scenes at HQ here) and they placed an emphasis on maintaining that bond, despite physical distance: 
<blockquote>
&ldquo;We worked really hard in the early days of lockdown to reach out to one another. Sometimes that was planned, but it's also been great to see the team connect with each other informally and support each other with WFH Workouts, Virtual Meditation Sessions and other staff initiatives. Overall I'd say culturally we've become more respectful of each other during lockdown.&rdquo;
</blockquote>

It&rsquo;s an interesting phenomenon of lockdown life. Whether it&rsquo;s Zoom-background glimpses into bedrooms or surprise guest appearances from puppies/pets/housemates, we&rsquo;ve all become more aware of our colleagues&rsquo; lives. A more nuanced appreciation of our workmates&rsquo; home life, and simply missing them, can definitely lead to more respectful working relationships. However, the intangible bond built by face-to-face time can&rsquo;t be 100% replaced with virtual socialising. Sam shares:

<blockquote>
&ldquo;Some things we simply haven't been able to replicate as effectively remotely despite our best efforts. Wellness Wednesday is our midweek pick-me-up designed to focus our attention on health, happiness and work-life balance. It's a hugely important part of our culture, where we focus on communicating with one another and taking some time out. We've kept it going during lockdown, but it's very much a communal gathering kind of vibe, and something that will benefit hugely from taking place physically once again.

It's fair to say we're quite a social bunch, and while we've done the ubiquitous 'Zoom Drinks' and Virtual Team Building Socials (including a virtual magic show that was first-rate), I think we'd pretty much all agree that we're all looking forward to face-to-face get togethers being back on the agenda.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
<h3> The Future of Work</h3>
As we hit one year in lockdown, the sentiment around working from home began to shift noticeably. Initially hailed as the future of work, with doomladen proclamations for the coworking industry, over the past few months, more employers are reappraising the benefits of in-person work. Just last week, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-06/hundreds-of-bankers-return-to-jpmorgan-goldman-london-offices" style="color: #236fa1;">15% of JP Morgan staff returned to its London office</a>, Goldman Sachs reportedly expects in-person attendance to rise to 20% within 6 weeks and&nbsp; Google brought forward the date for workers&rsquo; return to work. Crucially, the tech giant announced that any employees wishing to work from home for more than 14 days from September will need to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56598933" style="color: #236fa1;">apply to do so</a>. A big shift in gear, but one that takes into account that there&rsquo;s more to the office than desks and coffee on tap.

Working from home is brilliant for tackling deep work and solo strategizing. It&rsquo;s for reflection, introspection, and requires a lower dial of energy. Our workspaces are about high energy, speed, impact and decisiveness. They&rsquo;re spaces to come together, collaborate, creatively ideate and grow your team culture. Put simply: different environments suit different types of work. This is definitely true for Regital:

<blockquote>
&ldquo;What this past year has shown is that work is a thing you do - not where you do it. Maybe that's not the case for every business, but it is for us. The idea of &lsquo;the office&rsquo; has changed and it&rsquo;s no longer simply the place we go to work every day. That's why it's great to be based in Huckletree. As well as being in an amazing part of the city, there's a genuine community feel to the place. Moving forward we'll operate a mix of office and home-working. We want that choice and flexibility. It's good for our staff, the business, and our clients.&rdquo; 
</blockquote>
<h3>Onwards and Upwards</h3>
2021 is the year to get stuck into it with renewed urgency, enthusiasm and optimism. Regital&rsquo;s big challenge for the year ahead:
<blockquote>
 &ldquo;Digital advertising is going to go through a seismic change this year, as we&rsquo;re moving towards a more private web. Cookies and how advertisers track you on an individual basis are being phased out by Google. It&rsquo;s huge news in our industry, and will change digital marketing forever.&nbsp;

At Regital, we&rsquo;ve been planning for the demise of the cookie for a long time. Our data partner, (and fellow Huckletree resident), Skyrise Intelligence, is privacy-by-design without using cookies or identifiers, powered by mobile network data, so we are way ahead of the game on this one. 2021 will be a massive year for us as we help our clients prepare for the changes and to get in front, by integrating mobile telco-data into everything we do.&rdquo;
</blockquote>

You heard it here first...

<a href="https://www.huckletree.com/spaces" style="color: #236fa1;">Plan your return to work with us now.</a>

Return To Work: Regital's Flexible Future

<h2 style="text-align: center;">As the roadmap out of lockdown rolls on, headlines, feeds and Whatsapp chats are filled with optimism and excitement for the year ahead.</h2>
For some, however, lockdown induced fatigue is hitting hard - and it&rsquo;s impacting our creative abilities.&nbsp;
Back in lockdown 1.0., our collective creativity went into overdrive with doorstop photoshoots, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/laborcamp/?utm_source=ig_embed" style="color: #236fa1;">ultra-hype social distancing social media projects</a> and we&rsquo;re-all-in-it-together warm and fuzzies vibes. Over one year on, that novelty has stagnated. Across professions including journalism, photography, design, animation, copywriting and advertising, many are experiencing COVID-fuelled creative burnout on a daily basis.
<h4> Creative Burnout 101</h4>
What does creative burnout actually look or feel like? Take a minute to check in with yourself. Are you experiencing:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Frustration</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Finding it hard to relax</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Procrastination</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Despair that you&rsquo;ll never hit your creative groove again</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Anxiety that you&rsquo;re letting your team, client or self down</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Insomnia</li>
</ul>
If you find yourself ticking down the list, you&rsquo;re not alone. Prolonged social isolation, screen overload and sustained work/life stress justifiably has taken its toll. It&rsquo;s a hot topic at <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/spaces/ancoats" style="color: #236fa1;">Huckletree Ancoats</a>, our Manchester workspace for media and digital lifestyle pioneers, with several of our resident creative businesses and entrepreneurs feeling the burn. <a href="https://twitter.com/GlNATONIC?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" style="color: #236fa1;">Gina Tonic</a>, Co-Founder of <a href="https://www.thefatzine.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">The Fat Zine</a> and freelance journalist, had a prolific output during the past 12+ months - but that doesn&rsquo;t tell the full story of her creative mindset: 
<blockquote>
&ldquo;It's definitely been ebbs and flows, I think it's hard to constantly be creative as any creative person will tell you, but being in a state of lockdown can make periods of low creativity feel a lot worse. When you're inside, not able to draw inspiration or find catharsis in the outside/real world, it feels a lot more daunting trying to get back to a creative mindset for sure.&rdquo;&nbsp;
</blockquote>

Lockdown hasn&rsquo;t just constrained our social lives, but our brains, too - and digital outlets just don&rsquo;t cut it anymore. The world wide web hosts a bounty of inspiration, but screen-based creative sparks should be just one part of the creative equation. Our once-lively worlds were minimised to our homes (or even bedrooms alone), and the now too-familiar treads of our local park or neighbourhood streets. Put simply: we&rsquo;re understimulated, overstressed and exhausted from the almost-overnight evaporation of our industries.
<h4>Status: Stasis</h4>
The creative industries have been hit hard by COVID, with 47% freelancing - compared to 15% of the wider workforce. Younger, and female, creatives have also been <a href="https://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/news/pandemic-plight-of-younger-freelancers-and-audiences-worst-of-all-new-research-states/" style="color: #236fa1;">disproportionately affected</a> due to their working status. Ironically, many of the creatives hit hardest worked on the streamed media, music and TV we&rsquo;ve rabidly consumed whilst under stay-at-home orders.

As the implications of COVID became clearer, many brands pulled back on budgets and pressed pause on audacious campaigns or rebrand projects. Huckletree Ancoats member <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-gould-17049819/?originalSubdomain=uk" style="color: #236fa1;">Christian Gould</a>, Managing Director of creative studio, <a href="https://www.blossommanchester.co.uk/" style="color: #236fa1;">Blossom</a>, helps independent businesses maximise their potential. For agencies, the usual pitch-win-pitch-win rhythm was disrupted, too - as Christian explains: 
<blockquote>
&ldquo;When we went into the first lockdown I kind of lost my appetite for approaching new clients to try and get them to spend money with Blossom, there was so much uncertainty around. I&rsquo;m one of those unfortunate three million people that&rsquo;s fallen through the cracks of government support though so I wasn&rsquo;t sat in my pants playing Animal Crossing. Obviously a ton of other small businesses were really going through it too and struggling to make ends meet.&rdquo;
</blockquote>

Alongside weathering the financial impact of COVID solo, many of those small businesses and freelancers found themselves creatively adrift, too. Christian found himself in frustrating limbo:

<blockquote>
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had so many projects that were expected to start but have been delayed and delayed again without being given the go ahead. My main battle has been staying focused in the quiet times in-between projects; that&rsquo;s when I struggle to motivate myself. I need something to look forward to, a break in the cycle. The options seem to be either &lsquo;working&rsquo; or &lsquo;you should be working&rsquo;.&rdquo;
</blockquote>

The monotony and mundanity of lockdown has heavily impacted our sense of balance, as we saw in our <a href="https://huckletree-asks.typeform.com/to/ptLax5nv" style="color: #236fa1;">survey of 200+ startup talent.</a> With no physical boundaries between work and downtime, or activities to stimulate our creativity, there can feel like there&rsquo;s no respite from the demands of the to-do list, or the push to fill one up.

<h4>Positivity in Pivoting</h4>
So where to go from here? We can start by releasing the pressure on ourselves to be ultra-productive. Huckletree&rsquo;s virtual series <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/events" style="color: #236fa1;">PURE JOY</a> was created as a space for deep, nourishing, non-OKR-related conversation. No pressure to note-take, or maximise learnings for later deployment. Instead, our community gathers in the liminal world of a Zoom chat room for an hour of conversation with literary, art and culture innovators. Together, we&rsquo;ve meandered through the dark side of Hollywood, LGBTQ+ love and Roald Dahl with the likes of Clare Conville, Max Webber and Nina Mae Fowler.&nbsp;

Taking our foot off the productivity pedal and allowing ourselves just enjoy, experience and connect, without pressure to turn that into creative output has had a restorative effect for each of us. So too does stepping outside of our usual channels of creativity. For Christian, it proved a salvation:&nbsp;
<blockquote>
 &ldquo;In May I launched a platform called <a href="https://www.manchesterstories.co.uk/" style="color: #236fa1;">Manchester Stories</a> which aims to champion and support local, independent businesses and tell the inspiring stories of the people behind them. It helps them to gain some local exposure and connect them with their community and it&rsquo;s really helping people. Working on that has been a bit of a life saver really, it&rsquo;s kept me sane. It&rsquo;s even brought in a number of creative projects too.&rdquo; 
</blockquote>
<h4>Social Media</h4>
There&rsquo;s strength and reassurance in community, too. Rising Instagrammer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/workinsocialtheysaid/?hl=en" style="color: #236fa1;">@workinsocialtheysaid</a> is a cathartic space for social media specialists, who often juggle the hats of designer, copywriter, strategist, data analyst, customer service all at once. In a recent poll, their audience cited their biggest concern is managing their mental health whilst simultaneously managing platforms during the pandemic. Intrigued, I asked influencer Gina if maintaining such a public personal brand impacted her mental health in 2020:
<blockquote>
 &ldquo;It benefits me greatly having this platform to vent, explore and ultimately receive support from hundreds of people. It's important to recognise it can't be the source of my self esteem or self worth but equally, I disagree with those who pretend it does not give you those things.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
 That&rsquo;s not to say that it&rsquo;s 24/7 dopamine rushes, but Gina raises a valid point. Community doesn&rsquo;t need to be physical to be a form of support, learning and inspiration:
<blockquote>
&ldquo;Striking the right balance of using social media as a platform for your ideas and thoughts but also not the only place to explore those things has been hard - still is sometimes - but more than anything my mental health has benefited from finding that balance. I really appreciate the community and education I have found online through social media.&rdquo;
</blockquote>

<h4>The State of Play</h4>
As UK coronavirus cases continue to drop and we cautiously but hopefully enter the latest stage of lockdown lifting, there&rsquo;s a light at the end of the tunnel. For many creatives, there&rsquo;s solace in exploring newly reopened shops, and soon galleries, theatres and gigs, for inspiration and re-energising. As for Gina, the answer is obvious:&nbsp;

<blockquote>
&ldquo;The pub, haha. I feel all my best ideas and thoughts come from setting the world to rights over a pint! A great lived experience is the best way to source inspiration in my opinion.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
 First round&rsquo;s on us, Gina.

________

<h3>Burnout Busting:</h3>

Learn: <a href="https://design.org/how-to-know-if-youre-suffering-from-creative-burnout-and-what-to-do-about-it/#:~:text=Creative%20burnout%2C%20as%20you%20can,to%20think%20of%20anything%20else.">How to identify and tackle creative burnout </a>Protect Your Head: <a href="https://yoursocial.team/building-boundaries-smm" style="color: #236fa1;">tips for social media professionals</a>

Read: <a href="https://www.thefatzine.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Buy the latest issue of the Fat Zine</a>

Watch: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CK4NzLdgYFr/" style="color: #236fa1;">Manchester Stories meets the man using cold water therapy to help trauma, anxiety and PTSD recovery&nbsp;</a>

Reconnect: Founded by Huckletree Ancoats member, Ned Poulter, <a href="https://neverspoons.app/" style="color: #236fa1;">Neverspoons</a> to find a local, indie pub for a first alfresco pint with friends.

COVID Burnout: When Inspiration Doesn't strike

<h2 style="text-align: center;">8 hours. 60 speakers. 4 stages. 1 high-impact virtual Sustainability Summit.</h2>
For the first time in Huckletree history, we're hosting Earthrise Summit, a <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit?utm_source=EXT+newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=summit_2021" style="color: #236fa1;">virtual sustainability festival</a> to address the climate change agenda, bringing together brands, leaders, entrepreneurs and investors from all corners of the globe. <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit" style="color: #236fa1;">Book your ticket</a>.
By 2050, experts predict that there will be 9 billion people living on the planet putting enormous stress on everything from transport infrastructure to sanitation provision, public services to energy supply, clean air to green spaces.
Hear from companies and individuals who are already innovating toward a more sustainable future and become part of a movement for positive change.
Headline Speakers:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.lilycole.com/">Lily Cole</a>, Author, Activist, Supermodel</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0GDGB3PMtQ" style="color: #236fa1;">Jimmy Chin</a>, Oscar winning filmmaker, athlete and National Geographic photographer</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.tristramstuart.co.uk/" style="color: #236fa1;">Tristam Stuart</a>, award-winning author, speaker, campaigner and expert on the environmental and social impacts of food</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit" style="color: #236fa1;">Learn more</a>. 
Sustainability Programme Partners Another Huckletree first: we're excited to team up with international law firm,<a href="https://cms.law/en/gbr/"> CMS</a> as our first sustainability programme partner alongside<a href="https://www.svb.com/uk"> Silicon Valley Bank</a>, and<a href="https://www.aoproptech.com/" style="color: #236fa1;"> A/O Proptech</a> - Europe&rsquo;s largest proptech VC firm.&nbsp;
As the need for action on the climate crisis on the global business stage remains urgent, we approached all three partners to help raise awareness and provide expertise of the challenge at hand. We look forward to having them along for the journey and providing support and services to our educational programmes, members and events - starting with<a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit?utm_source=EXT+newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=summit_2021"> Earthrise Summit</a> and the<a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/alpha?utm_source=EXT+newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=alpha_page" style="color: #236fa1;"> Alpha Accelerator</a>, our sustainability focused pre-seed programme. Our Co-Founder and CEO Gabriela Hersham: "The need has never been greater for businesses to acknowledge their role in the climate crisis and to source real-world solutions. We have a responsibility to not wait for others, to get to work, and to lead in whatever way we can." <a href="https://startupsmagazine.co.uk/article-huckletree-announces-three-major-corporate-firms-sustainability-partners" style="color: #236fa1;">Read more about our partnership.</a>

Just Announced: Earthrise Summit & Our Sustainability Programme Partners

<h2 style="text-align: center;">A post-COVID world is an opportunity not just to build back, but to build back better.</h2>
We must learn from the global collaboration and unity shown in the face of the pandemic and come together once again to tackle the next great crisis of our time: climate change.&nbsp;
The World Economic Forum states that digital technology can reduce global carbon emissions by 15% by 2030. European startups have a wealth of ideas to positively impact environmental change, but for that change to be achieved, talk is not enough. Support is needed to help these entrepreneurs bring their ideas to scale and into the hands of consumers - this is where our pre-seed programme, the Alpha Accelerator comes in. We&rsquo;ve brought together six of the most exciting purpose-driven for-profit startups in the UK who are championing sustainability and working on innovations to reduce the impact of the climate crisis across the globe. Over the next 12 weeks, we&rsquo;ll supercharge our Alphas&rsquo; journey towards raising their seed round with support from our first Sustainability Programme Partners <a href="https://cms.law/en/gbr/">CMS UK</a>, <a href="https://www.svb.com/uk" style="color: #236fa1;">Silicon Valley Bank</a> and <a href="https://www.aoproptech.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">A/O Proptech</a>, plus industry experts, serial entrepreneurs, world-class operators and investors.
<h4>Meet The Teams</h4>

<a href="https://www.nulacarbon.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Nula Carbon</a>
At Nula Carbon, we're normalising environmental perks, providing leading businesses with the opportunity to showcase their commitment to their people and the planet. 
&ldquo;COVID-19 has been a time for reflection for both businesses and individuals. People are waking up to the climate crisis and are ready to make a change but we need to maintain this momentum. Our goal has always been to make climate action accessible. We hope that by providing a simple environmental solution that integrates well with the changing organisational landscape, we can create a ripple effect, kickstarting mainstream climate action. 
As a very small team, we try and get as much feedback as possible outside of Nula, however, it is not always possible. Working alongside a cohort that have similar goals to ourselves is an incredibly exciting prospect. It means different ideas, questions and importantly, critiques from people who are very passionate about sustainability and have relevant areas of expertise.
As countries, civil societies and organisations around the world take action to tackle climate change what role do startups play in contributing to a more sustainable planet?
Startups are here to bring fresh ideas to the table. We are dynamic and flexible, pivoting with new technology and insight. What&rsquo;s more, we are challenging current spaces, appealing to mainstream consumers with strong visual and verbal narratives, meaning that hopefully we can help sustainability become the norm.&rdquo;

<a href="https://www.instantpickup.delivery/">Instant Pickup </a>Instant Pickup is developing the first online platform where organisations can find exclusively environmentally friendly vans for their same day logistics needs.
 &ldquo;Our mission is to have a lot of impact post COVID, as we hope to help our economy&nbsp; build back better and switch from being reactive to being proactive. Our aim is to optimise new solutions that will allow us to enjoy a green recovery. 
I am looking forward to being challenged, being inspired and becoming part of the Huckletree family as we are braver together.
 As countries, civil societies and organisations around the world take action to tackle climate change what role do startups play in contributing to a more sustainable planet?
startups will play a vital role in helping to accelerate the shift to low carbon solutions and&nbsp; the accessibility of green alternatives and help to combat resistance to sustainable change by making it easier than ever for consumers and companies to 'do the right thing'.&rdquo;

<a href="https://tupptakeaway.com/">TUPP </a>Lunchbowls-as-a-service for the workplace, on a mission to save 25 million single-use containers from landfill by 2025.
 &ldquo;TUPP wants to lead post-COVID initiatives to build a more sustainable world. Our reusable lunchbowl service empowers workplace communities to make small, effortless changes that collectively have a huge impact (our goal? Save 25 million single-use containers from landfill by 2025). We hope that someday you&rsquo;ll look back and wonder how you ever threw things away after only one use.
 One of the unique challenges of being an early stage, sustainability-first company is balancing the lean startup notion of &ldquo;good enough&rdquo; with the thoroughness sustainability considerations often require. We are eager to hear from our fellow cohort members how they think about and manage this balance.&rdquo;
 As countries, civil societies and organisations around the world take action to tackle climate change what role do startups play in contributing to a more sustainable planet?
&ldquo;There is an enormous shift underway in how our economies and societies operate as the world wakes up to the threats of climate change. Every startup that exists today has an opportunity to drive this transition &ndash; in how we move, eat, consume, work, live &ndash; and to do so with the scrappiness, innovation, and speed that have come to define startups of the previous decades. startups of the 2020s must show the world that business-as-usual isn&rsquo;t enough &ndash; this is the decade of action.&rdquo;

<a href="https://www.wearespruce.co/" style="color: #236fa1;">Spruce</a> - Grads of our entrepreneurship bootcamp, <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/future-founders">Future Founder Academy </a>Spruce is the ethical cleaning brand that cleans up your home and the planet. 
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re addressing household plastic pollution and greenwashing in the industry, making refills convenient and accessible to the larger market.
 We&rsquo;re looking forward to connecting with and learning from fellow founders with similar ethical values.

Startups are typically challenging the norm to address issues that are often overlooked by larger incumbents. With the agility and purpose-driven values, startups are paving the way for innovation and also drive a cult-like following that educates and enables customers towards a more sustainable future.
&nbsp;
<a href="https://savedfood.co.uk/">Saved Food </a>Saved Food's ambition is to develop insect-based essential food items such as bread, pasta, fortified through insects' high tenure in protein and contributing to the development of a more sustainable food supply chain.

"Covid-19 showcased how rapidly we can all change and adapt our behaviour. Building on this momentum, my goal is to encourage people to keep seeking better sources of sustainable protein. Saved Food will offer more protein alternatives on the market through insect-based food leveraging insects' high tenure in protein and attractive nutritional profile. 
We, as a cohort, are coming from different backgrounds, have diverse experiences and skillset and I am looking forward to learning from each other to grow stronger, impactful businesses together. I am keen to see how we will tackle similar challenges around sustainability and shape our strategies through the cohort's ideas &amp; feedback during these 12 weeks. 
Consumer attitude, perception and taste are constantly evolving within the sustainability landscape and startups are essential players in understanding these changing needs through agility and speed. Startups are constantly challenging the status quo, playing a key role in innovation and technology advancements within this industry.&rdquo;
 
<a href="https://www.bendi.wtf/" style="color: #236fa1;">Bendi&nbsp;</a>
Bendi is a tool to help consumers shop more sustainably.&nbsp;

&ldquo;It is clear for many that coming back after the pandemic with the same mindset as before - bigger, better, faster, more - in pursuit of endless growth is not going to help us or the planet. Of course, fashion brands are still going to make and sell us clothes, but the relationship between consumers and the products we are willing to buy is changing. Demand for sustainability is a rising tide and the call for transparency from brands about where their products come from and how they're made is only going to grow. 
We are really looking forward to workshopping the issues facing an early-stage company with organisations that are at a similar stage and working in the same space. We're hoping there will be lots of cross-pollination - Bendi is working on sustainability in fashion and apparel, but there is so much we can learn from approaches to sustainability being applied in other industries. 
Startups are uniquely positioned to respond to so-called "wicked" problems due to their agility. One of the most exciting things about the Bendi journey so far has been looking at sustainability through the eyes of a multidisciplinary team. In a larger organisation those functions might exist within a business, but working together might not come naturally due to scale. Cross-discipline collaboration within a smaller startup environment brings a potentially unique perspective to sustainability problems.&rdquo; 

&pound;10m in funding, 42 grads, 120 jobs created and a 100% NPS score. The Alpha Accelerator has supercharged the journey to launch and funding for Easol, Onloan, Loveshark, Wild.AI and JustWears.&nbsp; As part of our mission towards a fairer ecosystem, we curate businesses with at least one underrepresented founder as part of the founding team. Find out more about <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/alpha" style="color: #236fa1;">our pre-seed programme</a>. 
Just announced: Earthrise Summit 2021 - a virtual, high-impact sustainability festival. Join industry experts, investors, politicians, academics and entrepreneurs to discuss, debate and showcase how together, we can build a more sustainable future. <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit" style="color: #236fa1;">Book your ticket now</a>.

These Startups Will Save The World

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Building the home of brave innovation calls for serious talent. Since launching in 2014, we&rsquo;ve hunted down the most talented people in London, Manchester and Dublin to help us grow Huckletree.</h2>
Whether they&rsquo;re working in marketing, tech or community-facing roles, our people bring relentless passion, fast learning and a culture of innovation to every dimension of their work. The one thing they all have in common? A passionate entrepreneurial mindset. In our team, you&rsquo;ll meet alternative pathfinders, MBA grads, hospitality stars, culture brand builders, ex-government experts, property industry old hands and more - many with side hustles of their own. Whether they&rsquo;re hosting DJ sets, launching a record label, coaching yoga classes or learning how to stick and poke tattoos during lockdown, our team are always innovating, creating and planning their one-day-soon startup.
 We caught up with Huckletree D2 Membership Manager <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/aishling-ruigrok-a2b467155/" style="color: #236fa1;">Aishling Ruigrok</a> for the story on her growing sustainable fashion side hustle, what she&rsquo;s learned from our community of brave innovators - and her big plan for the business in 2021. 
<h3>Hi, Aishling. Tell us about your side hustle&hellip;</h3>
 &ldquo;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/nasc_clothing/?hl=en-gb">NASC</a> is an ethical, not-for-profit clothing project selling sustainable t-shirts and jackets. Myself and my best friend Grainne (two young women passionate about sustainability) were only too delighted to take over the project in 2019. The word &lsquo;nasc&rsquo; is the Irish word for &lsquo;link&rsquo; or &lsquo;bond&rsquo; and ultimately, we want to make it easy to get great clothes while not sacrificing on price, quality, ethics or environmental impact (an easy ask right?). Our t-shirts are 100% organic cotton and our groovy jackets are handmade in an ethical factory in Malawi. Despite my full time role as Membership Manager at <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/spaces/dublin" style="color: #236fa1;">Huckletree D2 in Dublin</a> and Grainne completing a Masters&rsquo; in London in Political Economy, we absolutely love finding the time to work together on such a fun and purpose-led project.&rdquo;

<h3>Why is building an ethical business important to you? </h3>
&ldquo;I think living conscientiously is so important on a variety of levels. Grainne and I are of the mind that if it&rsquo;s within your power to consume without it being at the cost of others, why wouldn&rsquo;t you? Fast fashion is an inherently destructive industry with human rights abuses rampant in the factories across the world as well as shocking environmental implications. I think educating people as well as making sustainable and ethical options available and creating that demand is crucial to pressure large companies to up their game. Businesses have a moral obligation to ensure that they have transparent supply chains and a commitment to do their part for climate change.&nbsp; On the flip side of all this doom and gloom, this shift is a real opportunity too. Cleantech is a burgeoning industry - in fact, the Bank of America projects that companies which will benefit from a transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy are worth a collective $6tn. There are already so many amazing brands in this space who are thriving. Two personal favourites of mine are Irish startup <a href="https://www.thriftify.ie/" style="color: #236fa1;">Thriftify</a> which raised &euro;500,000 last year to bring charity shops online and UK based scaleup <a href="https://www.wearewild.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">WILD</a> which is a plastic free, gender neutral natural deodorant. They also raised &euro;2 million in 2019.
People are starting to demand better and the Sustainable Planet theme of our 2021 pre-seed programme, the <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/alpha" style="color: #236fa1;">Alpha Accelerator</a>, reflects that. Being able to sit in on past Alpha sessions and demo days has been incredible so I can&rsquo;t wait to get to know, support and learn from a fully sustainable cohort when it kicks off next week!&rdquo;
 
<h3>Right now, NASC is shoppable on Depop. Why is it the perfect platform for your side hustle? </h3>
&ldquo;I absolutely love <a href="https://www.depop.com/nasc_clothing/">Depop</a> - I am a complete Depop groupie. It&rsquo;s such a brilliant concept and makes buying sustainably so cheap and accessible. We love using it for our products because it automates everything for us - payments, keeping track of stock, tracking deliveries, it&rsquo;s so user friendly. Another serious bonus for us is that you get access to a community of people who care about buying sustainably (not to mention it&rsquo;s a great place to shop in general). I was so excited to hear they were joining <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/spaces/ancoats">Huckletree Manchester</a> last year and am still holding out for a Dublin team!&rdquo;
 <img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/cokGbhhQ0a639Pv5rsZe" alt="undefined" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />
&nbsp;
<h3>How has being part of Team Huckletree supported your entrepreneurial dream? </h3>
&ldquo;My last year and a half at Huckletree has been an amazing learning experience for me when it comes to the world of entrepreneurship. Between having the opportunity to sit in on workshops with industry leaders, investors and serial founders, to hosting our monthly Founders&rsquo; Breakfast in Dublin, it&rsquo;s impossible not to absorb it all. I have been so lucky to meet some incredible people and there has been a group of women in particular who really inspire me. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-mccarthy-ireland/?originalSubdomain=ie" style="color: #236fa1;">Liz McCarthy</a>, former CEO of Scale Ireland, is incredibly driven and has done remarkable work on behalf of startups as well as in the D&amp;I space. She&rsquo;s exceedingly warm, so multifaceted and gets shit done. The same can be said of <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewize-mc-cauley-crothers-7062a929/" style="color: #236fa1;">Lewize Crothers</a>, Founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.exitentry.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Exit Entry</a>, an EdTech startup disrupting a very traditional space. These women are the epitome of empathetic leaders and I really look up to them. I also have to mention (though I haven&rsquo;t had the pleasure of meeting them yet) Sarah and Farah from <a href="https://www.hanxofficial.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">HANX</a>, the vegan condom brand designed for women. I am so passionate about Cleantech and Femtech so I absolutely love what they are doing. Their online presence is also brilliant, I&rsquo;d highly recommend <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hanxofficial/" style="color: #236fa1;">following them on instagram</a>.
 On a personal level, the friends I&rsquo;ve made have also given me so much guidance for NASC, too. <a href="https://escalate.ie/" style="color: #236fa1;">Escalate Digital Marketing</a> gave us tips on branding and social media marketing, and the lads at <a href="https://www.evocco.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Evocco</a> showed us how to grow a sustainable brand. Everyone is so sound with their time and it sounds cliche but there is a real community spirit here.&rdquo;
 
<h3>From working with our Dublin community, what knowledge do you think you need to succeed as a startup founder?&nbsp; </h3>
&ldquo;Does being a morning person count? Because I think that would be very beneficial...

From what I&rsquo;ve seen from other founders, I think having a real belief in your product is so important - you have to get up out of bed every day determined to go and make it work. As well as that, recognising where your skills are lacking and surrounding yourself with people who have complimentary skills is also paramount in running a successful project.&nbsp;

For me, I think there&rsquo;s so much I still have to learn. Having a mentor in <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/aislinnmahon/?originalSubdomain=ie" style="color: #236fa1;">my manager Ais</a> has been amazing when it comes to improving my skills and industry knowledge. From attention to detail to facilitating group discussions at our founders breakfast, she is eager to provide me with the tools and opportunities to develop personally and professionally.&rdquo;
 
<h3>The big one: what are your aims for NASC in 2021?&nbsp;</h3>

&ldquo;Finishing the US Office - priority number 1.&nbsp;

In all seriousness, Grainne and I really want to spread the word of conscious consumption and get more people to stop and think when making purchasing decisions. To do that, we need to improve our brand awareness and increase our online following. It wouldn&rsquo;t hurt to sell a few tees as well!&nbsp;

On a personal note, I want to sink my teeth into the world of femtech and cleantech and speak to more people moving the needle in our fight against climate change and on behalf of gender equality. I want to improve my knowledge on these topics, keep working on improving my skills and importantly, I want to make sure I am being kind to myself and those around me with the world the way it is. I think slowing down and checking in with yourself and those around you is a real priority this year - it&rsquo;s easy to get wrapped up in it all.&rdquo;
 
<h3>What Next:</h3>
- Want to become part of the movement for positive change? Book your ticket for our first ever virtual sustainability festival, <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/sustainability-summit" rel="follow">Earthrise Summit</a>.
- Support Aishling by joining NASC community <a href="https://www.instagram.com/nasc_clothing/?hl=en-gb">on Instagram</a>.&nbsp;
- Shop NASC over on Depop <a href="https://www.depop.com/nasc_clothing/">here</a>.
- Huckletree is hiring. Find out more about our growing team and <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/about/join-the-team" style="color: #236fa1;">latest open roles now</a>.

How To Build A Sustainable Side Hustle

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Girl Boss. ShEO. Femtrepreneur. You name it, I&rsquo;ve heard it used to describe female founders in the six years since I launched my own business - and shuddered at.</h2>
Up until now though, I&rsquo;ve kept my distaste to team Slacks and eye rolls to my co-founder.&nbsp;
Not anymore. Just last month, Bumble Founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe-Heard took her business public and officially became the world&rsquo;s youngest female self-made billionaire. An incredible moment for Whitney and role model for female founders (present and future) - so why was my excitement tempered with frustration? Hearing those two little words in coverage of the move: &lsquo;Girl Boss&rsquo;.

<h4> PINKIFICATION</h4>
 At first glance, terms like &lsquo;Girl Boss&rsquo; might seem a little cloying but ultimately not worthy of outrage. You could even argue they&rsquo;re making entrepreneurship more accessible - and aspirational - for those who might not have considered it as a career option. It&rsquo;s certainly true that we need to champion more female talent across the ecosystem. Right now in the UK, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-alison-rose-review-of-female-entrepreneurship" style="color: #236fa1;">only 1 in 3 entrepreneurs is female</a>, a staggering 48% of investment teams feature no women at all, and for every &pound;1 of VC investment, all-female founder teams get less than 1p versus 89p to all-male founders. Perhaps these catchphrases really are just a hashtag-friendly stepping stone on the way to greater representation. However, my experiences as a founder leave me convinced that there&rsquo;s something more insidious at work than just a proliferation of cutesy sloganned work planners and sweatshirts. Take last year&rsquo;s missguided campaign by freelancer platform, PeoplePerHour which featured the line: &ldquo;You do the girl boss thing, we&rsquo;ll do the SEO thing.&rdquo; After justified viral outrage, the ASA ruled that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200127-the-advert-that-triggered-a-debate-about-girl-boss">London Underground ads featuring the term</a> perpetuated harmful gender stereotypes. Usage like this makes it clear that terms like Girl Boss are moulding us to see the role of boss as inherently male. It needs no gendered adjective clarification. From the books of my childhood to mainstream media reports on wins in the sector, the idea that &lsquo;boss&rsquo; is naturally a man&rsquo;s role has been and continues to be emphasised as the norm - and it&rsquo;s just not good enough. Today, bosses come in all forms: male, female and non binary.

<h4>MONEY TALKS</h4>
I know first hand about the gender bias faced by female entrepreneurs. I&rsquo;ve experienced sexism from potential investors who questioned my commitment to the business as I happened to be six months pregnant. I&rsquo;ve felt the same anger as many female entrepreneurs seeing their accomplishments invalidated by that ridiculous Tube campaign. However, the issue at hand is about more than just personal affront. We&rsquo;re in no position to downplay the vital role of female founders, with women-owned businesses contributing &pound;105 billion to the UK each year. In fact, the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/784324/RoseReview_Digital_FINAL.PDF" style="color: #236fa1;">Rose Review</a> stated that if able to start and scale at the same rates as male founders, female founders in the UK have the potential to add an additional &pound;250bn to the economy. So why aren&rsquo;t we doing that justice?

When &lsquo;Girl Boss&rsquo; entered the popular vernacular via Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso, it was initially hailed as a term of empowerment (despite the movement being overwhelmingly built on <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/girlbosses-what-comes-next/613519/" style="color: #236fa1;">white female privilege</a>). Over time, that&rsquo;s warped into something more infantalising than inspiring. We can&rsquo;t sit by and let that erode the potential and successes of female founders, especially in a post-COVID world. 2020 only deepened existing gender inequalities in the workforce, as women statistically more likely to work in sectors heavily impacted by lockdown. Female founders have been right there in the trenches and let me be clear: leading a business through a global pandemic is tough, irrespective of gender. Like many, I had to make difficult decisions about the redundancies of close members of my team and determining what to prioritise in order to ensure that our business would survive. 
However, hope, grit and determination prevails. I&rsquo;ve seen myself the hard work, brilliant thinking and revenue generated by female-founded businesses based in our London, Manchester and Dublin workspaces. McKinsey reported that despite accounting for 39% of the global workforce, women actually made up 54% of COVID-19 job losses. Whilst devastating, that so-called &lsquo;pandemic pause&rsquo; looks to be fuelling a <a href="https://www.businessupnorth.co.uk/new-data-suggests-female-entrepreneurs-are-driving-economic-recovery/" style="color: #236fa1;">new gen of female entrepreneurs</a> who are taking the plunge and launching their own startups. I couldn&rsquo;t be more fired up and ready for them to join us in the ecosystem.

<h4>MAKING CHANGE</h4>
This month, International Women&rsquo;s Day 2021 called for us to &ldquo;choose to challenge&rdquo; gender bias personally, and in our businesses - not just for one day, but for the whole year - and beyond. As a founder, I&rsquo;ve always believed that change starts with my own actions and the understanding that inclusivity is a choice. I&rsquo;m proud to challenge startup statistics by consciously <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/about/join-the-team" style="color: #236fa1;">building a team</a> which is 50% women - and they work at every level of the business, including 60% of our Senior Management Team. They&rsquo;re running sites, connecting minds, closing deals, strategising and rolling out <a href="https://startupsmagazine.co.uk/article-workspace-accelerator-puts-startup-members-spotlight-latest-ads" style="color: #236fa1;">major brand campaigns</a> and have big ambitions to become founders (not Girl Bosses) in the future, too. We&rsquo;re not perfect, or finished, but these are just some of the ways we&rsquo;re challenging gender bias:

<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">In response to the lack of diversity and equality within the startup ecosystem, we launched our pre-seed programme, <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/alpha" style="color: #236fa1;">The Alpha Accelerator</a>. Since 2017, we&rsquo;ve supported 42 alumni companies, 120 + jobs created, &pound;9m in funding raised and were named in Crunchbase&rsquo;s Top 100 Accelerators in the World. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">This month, our internal Culture and Diversity Committee hosted its first Allyship Workshop to empower every single team member to understand their privilege and how they can use it to support those who do not have the agency, power or opportunity to create change. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">We gifted workspace memberships for businesses promoting inclusivity in the workplace, including the visionary Inclusive Leadership Advisor, <a href="https://furkankarayel.wordpress.com/">Furkan Karayel</a>, who hosted a leadership workship for women and non binary Huckletree members. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">In January, we launched <a href="https://huckletree-asks.typeform.com/to/wlLwfBvb" style="color: #236fa1;">Huckletree VC Connect</a>, a quarterly partnership with leading investors. Together, we&rsquo;re challenging warm intro culture and offering founders without access to the VC ecosystem the opportunity to seek advice and make connections in free, virtual 1:1s. </li>
</ul>
We&rsquo;re not perfect but ultimately, we&rsquo;re truly committed to making change in the ecosystem, starting right here in our own community. The ripple effect is real.
<h4> THE LAST WORD</h4>
2021 is a chance to kickstart real, lasting change. The language we choose to use truly matters. The more we as a society &lsquo;other&rsquo; female founders, or imply our success is noteworthy because we&rsquo;re women, the more we&rsquo;ll continue to get less: to put that disruptive idea in the back pocket, to scale down our ambitions and seek less funding - <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/784324/RoseReview_Digital_FINAL.PDF" style="color: #236fa1;">if we even go for it at all</a>. If It&rsquo;s time to acknowledge that by rolling our eyes and dismissing language as minor, we&rsquo;re complicit in broader gender bias.
 As we emerge from a truly pivotal moment in history, we have the opportunity not to rebuild, but collectively construct a better innovation ecosystem - and it starts here. Female founders aren&rsquo;t girl bosses, femtrepreneurs or Sh-EOs. We&rsquo;re innovators, builders and entrepreneurs. Now let us get on with it - there&rsquo;s &pound;250billion to go after.

It’s Time To Banish The ‘Girl Boss’

<h2 style="text-align: center;">The 'To Be Continued' Project: A Love Letter.</h2>

There&rsquo;s been so much debate around the possible death of the office this past year but what&rsquo;s been lost in all the noise are the brave people and companies challenging industries and leading verticals to new frontiers. This is the story we want to share. Each week of 2020 we were inspired by the positive wins and collective resilience of our members and this campaign is a visible thank you, a love letter to them for sticking with us. We hope their stories inspire founders of the future to be brave in the face of adversity, too. They&rsquo;ve turned the last twelve months into something worth fighting for. The rest is TBC.
 <a href="http://www.huckletree.com/tbc" rel="follow" style="color: #236fa1;">Explore their stories </a>

JustWears sell over 1000 pairs of pants to more than 73 countries, The Collective UK become a B-Corp, Hylo launch a planet saving running shoe + more

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Dive into our weekly rundown of positive news from across the Huckletree community. From raising to renegade campaigns and founder profiles, this is your roundup.</h2>
📍 This just in: Huckletree Ambassador&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=6d82998e68&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D6d82998e68%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635945000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHGAUjDcYd60mI2B9T1UZfOTOTJgA" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Patrick Walker</a>&nbsp;has raised a $16m seed round (!) for&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=8777d3853e&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D8777d3853e%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635945000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHY3MNUZgl5IBsWigs2x8GnVPp33g" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Uptime</a>, the knowledge hacking app. Formerly an executive at Youtube and Facebook, he's now one of the founders behind the new micro-learning platform, which presents five-minute knowledge hacks from books, courses and documentaries - for free.&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=d7304f29ec&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3Dd7304f29ec%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635945000&amp;usg=AFQjCNERHKLiGLcHmNYP6xiYBNMkWNL0xg" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Techcrunch reports</a>.
 &nbsp;
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📍 Big news for the next-gen of Irish innovators. Huckletree D2 Alumni&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=cf864e1b8a&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3Dcf864e1b8a%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635945000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHieUOHhzk-cJ7rtxRKC_5PncznrQ" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Exit Entry</a>, the app that uses&nbsp;algorithms to match&nbsp;students to&nbsp;their next career opportunity,&nbsp;has&nbsp;just raised more than&nbsp;&euro;1m in funding. Find out more about how they plan to target more than&nbsp;100,000 new users in 2021 in&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=7fb8e00f2d&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D7fb8e00f2d%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635945000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHWWr-MOuCEaX9q0NAKX1MqMYkFlA" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">The Business Post</a>.
<h5 style="text-align: left;"> </h5>
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📍 Huckletree West residents<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=39cf828a66&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D39cf828a66%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHrcdR7kNvQ7MgAu3GM2iO8NG8G_Q" rel="noopener">&nbsp;Butternut Box</a> were&nbsp;dishing out 'Fresh Love Advice' for pups on the prowl this Valentine's Day - and giving you the chance to win a box of their pet food, too. So if you know a doggo who's sick of sniffing butts and getting nowhere, then hit up their Loveline. If you spot their posters (or Billboard!) on your daily walks, make sure to post on social and tag them using #ButternutLoveline to be in for a chance to win. Here's how to <a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=2644ec2260&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D2644ec2260%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHfunlD2XD_xiYcdL5vsnhpymYkzA" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">play cupid for your canine</a>.


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📍 Delve into the mindscape of 'The Fat Zine' creator and Huckletree Ancoats member&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=c8c37442b0&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3Dc8c37442b0%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFlH8NqNMGy2O_tg8cfUuOvxXdQmw" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Gina Tonic</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=74c37b9815&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D74c37b9815%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE7DQcVv5I_fEpy8ONMrvyoim-VXg" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Dazed Beauty</a>'s&nbsp;profile on&nbsp;the Welsh wordsmith. From fat-shaming to fillers, you'll find no topic is too taboo.&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=3cedd39716&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D3cedd39716%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFLTArHzZiq8ppjrZC_MlP51dICYA" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Get empowered</a>.
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📍 One week after we announced our&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=21664671b8&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D21664671b8%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGdO-cfUfIPD6uzQqeXTuGUDFUMHQ" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Sustainable Planet themed pre-seed accelerator cohort for 2021</a>, we're proud to see&nbsp;Alpha Grads&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=1a464e994c&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D1a464e994c%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHoz9cQQ4PLus-tR9rcA-QvY9qfMw" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Evocco</a>&nbsp;release&nbsp;their first insights report focusing on the motivations driving conscious consumer behaviour. It's designed for&nbsp;food businesses that want to make environmental sustainability a core part of their business, but need the consumer edge to know where to start.&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=ca51b40a96&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3Dca51b40a96%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFKTlnfV18kzavjfWNp65TApj2SUA" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Download here</a>.
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📍 When Huckletree OGs collide... former Huckletree Shoreditch members and longtime friends of Huckletree&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=bc70620240&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3Dbc70620240%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGgCfLFiN18yEUY030xQgbbGBdpTw" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">HANX</a>&nbsp;Co-Founder&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=90d31e10e4&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D90d31e10e4%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEwQygtfVh4nqQDc4BYak1N2ztP8Q" rel="noopener">Farah Kabir&nbsp;</a>and&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=e9495a607b&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3De9495a607b%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG-OQJUAxFEWPnLxaYMFdvNcTq_AQ" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Graham&nbsp;Hussey</a>&nbsp;(of the Startup Van) on the new Maddyness&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=0f977900b0&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D0f977900b0%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFhBsV1t0Y3x5IgLxerWFd32LRuig" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">podcast</a>. Hear&nbsp;what they had to say about condoms, community and capital as they take a dive into the wonderful world of SexTech.&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971&amp;id=92126637a2&amp;e=d19556651b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://huckletree.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D63934ff2e6ac04f8e53667971%26id%3D92126637a2%26e%3Dd19556651b&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1613655635946000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHyQUyZcQI3uWx1leyU1QAlJw_Eyg" rel="noopener" style="color: #236fa1;">Listen now.</a>


<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/huckletree/?utm_source=Member+Newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=6ab49ff591-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_09_16_04_38_COPY_01&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_24e1e5dcec-6ab49ff591-199233821" rel="follow">Got the good news fever? More positive news this way.</a>

Community News: Exit Entry raise €1m, spot HANX in a Sainsburys near you, Evocco release sustainability report & more...

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Consumer mindset is shifting. We emerged from lockdown 1.0 as more conscious consumers - and that isn&rsquo;t going away any time soon.&nbsp;</h2>
There&rsquo;s never been a better time for sustainability focused startups to start, scale and help create a better future for our planet.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/yangliu57/?originalSubdomain=uk" style="color: #236fa1;">Yang Liu</a> is part of the new gen of innovators with a core focus on sustainability. Co-Founder and CEO of <a href="https://just-wears.com/" rel="follow">JustWears</a>, she&rsquo;s building an underwear business with a ballsy perspective (<a href="https://just-wears.com/pages/dragons-den" style="color: #236fa1;">check out their turn on Dragons Den</a>) and a <a href="https://just-wears.com/pages/sustainability">clean, closed-loop manufacturing process</a>.&nbsp;
Since launching in 2018, Yang has seen firsthand the changing mindset towards sustainability in the consumer industry. Whether it&rsquo;s a cleaner conscience or a shrewd awakening to the monetary opportunities in &lsquo;the green pound&rsquo;, Yang highlights recent moves by high street giant H&amp;M and <a href="https://equilibrium.gucci.com/gucci-sustainability-strategy/#:~:text=As%20of%202018%2C%20Gucci%20has,and%20creating%20our%20collective%20future." style="color: #236fa1;">luxury brands like Gucci</a>, as pathfinders for fellow brands and canny investors. On the other side of the shopping cart, Yang pinpoints 2020&rsquo;s devastating wildfires in Australia and California as key wake up calls for consumers, who saw via social media the real time impact of climate change - some quite literally in their backyards. The learning? We still want to shop for products that are great quality - but not at the expense of the environment.&nbsp;
For wholesale brands and traditional retailers, there&rsquo;s always a cost argument against environmentally sound manufacturing. Yang explains:
&ldquo;Sustainability is always going to take a backseat unless you make it a sole part of your business. At JustWears, we actually start everything with sustainability in our hearts. It&rsquo;s not just some fancy afterthought to meet certain CSR targets. It goes to the very core of our values.&rdquo;

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<h4> COMMIT YOUR TIME - AND MONEY</h4>
Patience, and often paying more for the right elements, are central to building a sustainable business from the bottom up. Creating JustWears started with an epic quest for earth (and balls) friendly fabric. Over to Yang:
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to manufacture from cotton or synthetic materials but far, far harder to innovate around the future generation of fabrics, which are environmentally friendly and don&rsquo;t end up generating more trash or microfibres that are harmful to our planet.&rdquo;
Yang and her Co-Founder Alex Walsh hit up trade shows, chatted to suppliers and ended up testing over 1000 fabrics before landing on the ideal underwear fabric that both banishes chafing and sweaty balls. MicroModal&reg; AIR , a soft cellulosic fibre sourced from sustainable Austrian beech trees, is made in a non-toxic and renewable manufacturing process by <a href="https://www.lenzing.com/newsroom/press-releases/press-release/lenzing-is-celebrating-50-years-of-lenzing-modalr" style="color: #236fa1;">Lenzing</a>, an Austrian based manufacturer with a mission to create sustainable fibres. Thanks to its pioneering work creating the world&rsquo;s first producer of wood-based cellulosic fibres and making a strategic commitment to cut its CO2 emissions per ton of product by 50 percent by 2030, Lenzing was recognised as a sustainability champion in 2020 by the global environmental non-profit CDP. The perfect partner for the new generation of pants. The work doesn&rsquo;t stop there, however. Founders of sustainability focused startups need to consider how to prove the credentials of their products, thanks to greenwashing from corporations purporting to be environmentally friendly. For Yang and Alex, the solution is putting the time (and hard work) in to ensure their product performs exactly as they want it to - and say it does: &ldquo;If the suppliers say the fabric is &lsquo;high functional&rsquo; or 60% more absorbent compared to cotton, we put that into the lab and start testing. From there, and only after we are convinced every feature they promised us is true, the fabric can be considered to go into product design.&rdquo; 
Three years on, the pair are selling over thousands pairs of pants a week to over 70 countries and have big plans for the year ahead. Put it this way: JustWears is not just about underwear&hellip;
<h3> IDENTIFY YOUR ROLE MODELS</h3>
When building a purpose-driven startup, you need inspirational businesses in mind to help you keep the faith and keep on track with your goals. After switching out dairy for plant-based alternatives (via a DIY soya milk experiment), Yang has become a loyal customer of oat milk rebels, Oatly and is passionate about their impact:
&ldquo;They&rsquo;re a sustainable brand with a clear mission and marketing - they&rsquo;re a pioneer for the category and make everything transparent. From production to impact, it&rsquo;s all communicated clearly to customers.&rdquo;
On a business level, Yang sees Patagonia as the benchmark for success. With a strong focus on environmental and social responsibility, $1billion+ valuation and renegade attitude towards the fashion industry (see their second hand shop, <a href="https://wornwear.patagonia.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Worn Wear</a>), they&rsquo;re green #goals for JustWears: &ldquo;If we can become a business like Patagonia with a clear mission and values that are carried not just in the product, but people who work there and stakeholders, that would be the dream.&rdquo; 
 THE ALPHA PROGRAMME
We met Yang and Alex on the <a href="https://blog.huckletree.com/alpha-6-welcome-to-huckletree" style="color: #236fa1;">sixth cohort of our pre-seed accelerator, The Alpha Programme</a>, back in 2019 and are so proud of, and inspired by their incredible growth since. As applications roll in for our 2021 cohort, focused on underrepresented founders innovating in sustainability, Yang reflected on JustWears experience on the programme: 
&ldquo;Alpha came into our journey at exactly the right time. It builds an ecosystem for cohort membership and friendship. We can feel free to share info and help each other with anything we need. We got into Alpha without expecting what to get out of it and left Alpha feeling stronger than ever.&rdquo;

Applications for the Alpha Programme close on 1st March. <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/alpha" style="color: #236fa1;">Learn more and apply now</a>. Keep up with JustWears on <a href="https://just-wears.com/">Instagram</a> and discover their underwear, also known as the palace for your phallus, <a href="https://just-wears.com/products/duo-pack-yellow-red" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a>.

Meet The Sustainable Startup Disrupting Your Underwear Drawer

<h2 style="text-align: center;">The words &lsquo;Braver Together&rsquo; are words that form such a critical part of our mission and that underpin our principles.&nbsp;</h2>
They mean that we recognise the different values that each and every one of our personal stories bring, that we embrace and welcome everyone and that a diverse, representative community is the only community we want to be part of, or to have a hand in building. It also means that we need to stand up to the things that are uncomfortable and invisible - to break them in order to rebuild something better.

We&rsquo;re as passionate about supporting equality within the ecosystem as we are within our own team. We pledge to use our platform and our growing team to spur positive change. To help ensure that there is meaningful representation in all rooms at Huckletree. So that minorities including People of Colour and all other under-represented groups can not only see themselves as employees at Huckletree, but as employees with equal chances of climbing to the top of the ladder.

We are striving to build as diverse a team as possible and whilst we aren&rsquo;t yet perfect, we&rsquo;re proud of our efforts and the values that we embed into our recruitment process. Across 2020, 47% of our team enjoyed Diversity and Inclusion training programmes because we believe that we can all, always, do better in tearing down biases, celebrating diversity and being a truly inclusive workplace. More to do, more to come.&nbsp;

On paper, we run spaces for people to come together and work. You may read this and think it&rsquo;s not our place to have a point of view.&nbsp; But given the thousands of people who come through our hubs each day (or right now, virtually), the freedom of ideas exchanged, the connections and friendships made, and the progress we are trying to collectively build in various industries, we know that we cannot sit on our hands. Because if we turn our eye to grave injustices that impact members of our community, then what sort of community are we? What great innovative impact will we have on the world if not everyone has the chance to be invited into the room, to have a seat at the table or even afforded the opportunity to realise what they&rsquo;re made of? And what message would we be sending to our people, to our kids?

We have a zero-tolerance policy on racism and discrimination within our team and our community. We recognise the importance of building inclusive spaces and that psychological safety is as important as physical safety. Our spaces can be a refuge and our teams will be trained to know how to support you. Our doors will be open to those who need us, whether members or not.&nbsp;

Lastly, through the efforts of our Alpha accelerator programme (which is only available to founders from diverse backgrounds and is 100% pro-bono) our Fairer Funding campaign (which aims to embed equality for all founders in their attempts at raising capital) and our Ambasador Programme (where we&rsquo;re working towards building a truly representative community) we&rsquo;re actively striving to build more representation and inclusivity into the wider startup ecosystem.&nbsp;

All this said, we&rsquo;re equally conscious that these actions on their own are not enough, and so today we are reinforcing our commitment to further use our community to promote diversity, equality and inclusion. These past few months have sadly reminded us that we need to be more hyper-aware and more proactive about the threats that are invisible, nuanced and swept under the carpet - not just those that are most visible.

Finally, to our members, ambassadors, entrepreneurs and friends in the Black community and beyond: we don&rsquo;t&nbsp;just&nbsp;see you. We celebrate you, and we advocate for you. And we will continue to strive to do better by you.

Braver Together: Practising the Principle 

<h2 style="text-align: center;">If there was ever a year to be diagnosed with a serious case of the January blues, it would make sense for 2021 to be it.&nbsp;</h2>
If there was ever a year to be diagnosed with a serious case of the January blues, it would make sense for 2021 to be it. Still processing the whirlwind that was 2020 and starting this year in lockdown, we need to go that little bit further to look after ourselves and our mental health. Luckily for me and for our Dublin community, we can get our weekly dose of inspiration from Huckletree D2 resident <a href="https://ie.linkedin.com/in/amy-keatinge-28789212b" rel="follow">Amy Keatinge</a>, a determined idealist who embodies our purpose Braver Together through and through.&nbsp;
Amy is a proud Jobstown native, who along with being the NFTE Youth Entrepreneurship programme officer for Dublin Inner City, is also the 2019/20 Tallaght Youth Leader of the Year, Student Union President for IT Tallaght from 2018 &ndash; 2019 and Deputy President of TU Dublin Tallaght Campus 2019 - 2020. Just 30 minutes with her and I left with a renewed sense of optimism for the year ahead, not just for myself but for the thousands of young people that she and her team are working with this year.
According to <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/ireland-s-teenage-pariahs-we-are-really-at-breaking-point-now-1.4420387" rel="follow">an article published in the Irish Times</a>, young people have been more acutely affected by the pandemic than we realise. They&rsquo;re feeling increased levels of anxiety as they try to navigate education from home, facing ambiguity not just about their future and the job market, but the state of the world in general. This is before even considering the worry they face for the wellbeing of their vulnerable family members and the difficulties of their newfound isolation. Regularly accused of skirting restrictions and attending house parties in their free time, the more accurate truth is that teenagers are getting on with things, quietly and uncomplaining and there&rsquo;s a lot more we could be doing to support them for the road ahead.&nbsp;
This is where For&oacute;ige steps in.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.foroige.ie/" rel="follow">For&oacute;ige</a>, (pronounced &lsquo;For-oh-egg-eh&rsquo;) is one of Ireland&rsquo;s leading youth organisations with over 50,000 young people aged 10 - 18 participating in their programmes each year. Their entrepreneurship programme NFTE or the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship work primarily with youth reach groups, youth projects and Deis schools (schools aimed at lessening educational disadvantage and bringing about social inclusion). This is what gets Amy out of bed in the morning. Its mission? Supporting young people with entrepreneurial skills, self-belief and personal development.
The more I learn about the tireless efforts of the NFTE Youth Entrepreneurship Programme, the more I am in awe of the work they are doing to support young people who may not have the resources or support that they need. Day in day out, they work to empower our homegrown talent, starting with helping young people develop entrepreneurial skills, develop a vision of their future career and they show these young people how to take calculated risks among a myriad of other life lessons. We&rsquo;ve seen both in our own business, and in the wider Huckletree community that thinking outside the box and taking considered risks can help you weather uncertain times. Just as importantly, while instilling these essential skills, For&oacute;ige are giving young people extra support and guidance that they may really need.&nbsp;
A past participant and international winner of the NFTE competition, there are few people more qualified than Amy to speak with and encourage these young people.

&ldquo;I was a young person in the programme and I know that the work we are doing is making a difference. I wasn&rsquo;t the most academic kid but I was in the local youth group and when I found out we&rsquo;d be doing a business project I wasn&rsquo;t the most enthusiastic. Business was not my strong point, I had no interest in it&rdquo; (this was not the start I expected either!)
&nbsp;
Amy set up her start-up Cozy Soundz with the &euro;15 &lsquo;grant money&rsquo; that every student receives from NFTE to kick start their business. Cozy Soundz were earmuffs with built in earphones that she made herself.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t realise at the time but I was learning the 4Ps of marketing, managerial techniques, profit and loss as well as breakeven points! All I was trying to do was make more money and understand what was losing me money.&rdquo; 

All NFTE students participate in local competitions with the winners progressing to regional, national and even international competitions pitching to judges. Amy tells me how she thought seriously about opting out of the competition due to a lack of self-confidence.
&nbsp;
&ldquo;I asked my youth leader if I could opt out as I didn&rsquo;t feel that I had it in me to get through the competition. With support and determination from both my youth leader and myself, I competed and ended up winning that round.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
One pivot later to customised pillows with earphones built in as the winter came to an end, Amy had a brand new product to sell. We&rsquo;re talking One Direction, Westlife and Justin Bieber cushions (and no they&rsquo;re not still for sale we&rsquo;re sorry to say &ndash; I checked). Amy went on to win the regionals, the nationals and ultimately won gold in Belgium representing Ireland.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&ldquo;At nationals, I remember saying to my youth leader that I never thought I would get to this stage&rsquo; I was shocked to my core when I won. I was on RTE, the radio, the papers were ringing. For a young person to have that kind of experience is invaluable.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
Amy is adamant that For&oacute;ige instilled in her a self-confidence and self-belief that has stuck with her to this day.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&ldquo;Before NFTE, I wasn&rsquo;t too sure if I wanted to go to college. I thought about doing primary school teaching but my teacher and my principal pulled me aside and asked if I had considered studying business. If you had met me earlier, you would have said that I was never going anywhere near a business course. I applied and did a Level 8 degree in Marketing Management. I later became the Student Union President at IT Tallaght and the skills I learned with NFTE, from time-management to public speaking - it carried me through.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
She tells me what it&rsquo;s like now being on the other side of the NFTE programme as a Programme Officer as opposed to a participant.
&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen the impact first-hand of the work we do and I&rsquo;m passionate about working with young people. There&rsquo;s an old Irish proverb that says &lsquo;Ni thagann ciall roimh aois&rsquo; which means that &lsquo;sense does not come before age&rsquo;. I don&rsquo;t think that it&rsquo;s true at all. I believe that young people can teach us so much; they&rsquo;re so interesting and have so much to offer.&rdquo;

I was curious to hear Amy&rsquo;s proudest moment to date amidst this long list of accolades. She told me without reservation it was being crowned Tallaght&rsquo;s Youth Leader in 2019. She spoke passionately about how the community has banded together during COVID, regularly taking turns to do each other&rsquo;s shopping and checking in with each other.&nbsp;

&ldquo;I absolutely love my community and I love being from Tallaght. To win any award here where the people are so kind and compassionate is always a big deal but to win Youth Leader is huge. There are so many people doing work on behalf of young people.&rdquo; &nbsp;

Amy&rsquo;s humility and dedication to supporting young people is a refreshing reminder of the good going on in the world behind the scenes and a signal to the rest of us on how we can do more. Perhaps then an appropriate Irish proverb then to leave you with is &lsquo;mol an &oacute;ige agus tiocfaidh siad&rsquo; - praise the young and they will flourish. The future of Irish entrepreneurship looks bright but these young people must be supported now - given hope, given support and given the skills to do it.&nbsp;

If you&rsquo;re looking for a way to support NFTE in their work, you can get in touch with Amy&rsquo;s wonderful D2 counterpart Vicky at vicky.cullen@foroige.ie to be a business mentor for NFTE. All skill sets are welcome, marketing, sales, finance, tech -&nbsp; you name it. You will be matched up with a school to ensure they have the support and resources they need and it is all done virtually.&nbsp;&nbsp;

2020 tested the values. 2021 is the year to give back.&nbsp;

Championing The Next Gen of Irish Talent

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Supporting female founders is crucial to our post-COVID economic recovery. We&rsquo;re all building the future together &ndash; and maximising knowledge-share is crucial. We sat down with Aine Kerr, the host of our latest Female Founder Breakfast, who spoke some home truths about leadership.&nbsp;</h2>
We created our quarterly Female Founder Breakfasts as an empowering, supportive virtual space for entrepreneurs across our Hubs to come together, learn and solve problems with a pioneering female founder in the innovation ecosystem. We have one key requirement of our guest host: an unbridled enthusiasm for sharing transparent, actionable advice with our members.
Journalist, entrepreneur, coach and broadcaster&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ainekerr/">&Aacute;ine Kerr</a>&nbsp;is exactly that &ndash; and more. This quarter&rsquo;s host is the proud owner of a &lsquo;squiggly career&rsquo;: from her roots as a teacher, she spent seven years as a Political Correspondent and News Reporter with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/">The Irish Times</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.independent.ie/">The Irish Independent</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/">The Irish Examiner</a>. She went on to the role of Managing Editor at the first social media intelligence agency in the world (Storyful), followed by leading on global news partnerships at Facebook. These experiences gave her a &lsquo;behind-the-curtain&rsquo; insight into the dubious veracity of the content we&rsquo;re consuming.
Now, she&rsquo;s leading the fight back against fake news. Founded by &Aacute;ine and her Co-Founder Mark Little three years ago,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kinzen.com/">Kinzen</a>&nbsp;is helping technology companies and content moderators detect and disrupt disinformation, alongside helping publishers build deeper engagement with their audience. As COVID-19 mistruths, conspiracies and deliberate misinformation spread like wildfire, Kinzen&rsquo;s role is vital; ensuring we can have confidence in the quality and transparency of the information we consume every day. &Aacute;ine and Mark recently closed a round of &euro;1.6M in funding which included BVP, FST Ventures, DK Investments and Ray Nolan, with around &euro;3M raised in total.
Leadership skills, the future of media and finding balance: here are a few takeaways from Aine&rsquo;s Breakfast that I have been mulling over, and putting into practice since:

<ul>
<li>Know what gives you energy. &Aacute;ine&rsquo;s fulfillment comes from ensuring people understand the world around them. We are in the middle of an infodemic. People need to know that what they are reading is the truth. Energy needs to be replenished, as it can deplete in times of anxiety, so make sure you are saving time in the day for things that nourish you.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We develop our critical thinking skills from the age of 12, so the role of schools in helping us assess what&rsquo;s real and what&rsquo;s not real has never been more important. With good quality content often hidden behind a paywall, state-owned media is vital for dispersing good quality, factual news.&nbsp;We need to keep our public services safe.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Know what your purpose and your impact is. It helps to have a clear mission during those days when things don&rsquo;t go according to plan when you feel like giving up and throwing in the towel. Remember why you started, and&nbsp;be stubborn about your vision. Having an accountability buddy helps us to stay grounded, and to stay close to our vision. It helps if this person does not work with us every day.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Be the wisdom in the crowd, instead of adding fuel to the fire. Be of service to others in times of uncertainty.&nbsp;What skills do you have that can help others?&nbsp;Karma is real. If you are asking someone else for their service, know the ask.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Consider timeboxing your day to achieve balance, and to&nbsp;replenish your energy stocks. Leave Slack and email to work hours. If you need to send an email during the evening time, consider putting it on a timer for the next morning. Weave Slack in throughout the day, don&rsquo;t spend hours waiting for the next update. We are wired to crave the next ping &ndash; don&rsquo;t give in to it (check out&nbsp;<a href="https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/81254224">The Social Dilemma&nbsp;</a>for more on this).&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Once a week &Aacute;ine and Mark ask the Kinzen team to imagine they were holding the CEO reins.&nbsp;What would they do differently?&nbsp;They ask about what&rsquo;s worrying them and welcome hard truths. They communicate their failures (seen as learnings) and prioritise open and honest communication.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Stay loyal to your dreams, not your fears.&nbsp;This was a big one for me. Imagine if we invested the same time and energy in driving impact, and achieving our goals as we did reading Covid-19 news and scrolling through Twitter.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>When faced with a challenging situation, ask yourself three questions: 1) What can I control? 2) What is out of my control? 3) What can I influence?&nbsp;We won&rsquo;t always be able to control everything but we can influence situations and other people.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Often it helps to simply&nbsp;write down the thing you are unsure of.&nbsp;Writing something down is a piece of advice I have heard so many times since the start of the pandemic. Putting pen to paper somehow simplifies a problem that has magnified itself in your busy head.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Career paths do not travel in straight lines, rather they are squiggly. The squiggly bits are the most interesting, and this is where you learn the most. The squiggly bits can also be referred to as the messy middle, as depicted so well by one of Brene Brown&rsquo;s most recent&nbsp;<a href="https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-on-day-2/">podcast</a>&nbsp;episodes &ldquo;Day 2&rdquo;.&nbsp;The messy middle is ambiguous, ever-changing, and challenging. Sound familiar? </li>
</ul>
Read This: &ndash; Dream Big by Tara Muer &ndash; The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through The Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture by Scott Belsky
RSVP for virtual Huckletree events&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huckletree.com/events">here</a>.

No Mind Is An Island - Áine Kerr

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Sustainability is big business. According to Dealroom, European startups working to tackle climate change attracted &euro;9.8bn in VC investment over the last five years. The narrative around sustainability has shifted in recent years from individual responsibility to corporate obligation &ndash; and startups have a huge role to play in that.&nbsp;</h2>
Startups have the ability to create positive impact and environmental change through digital technology, innovation and solutions &ndash; when given the right support. The numbers speak for themselves &ndash; in 2019, investors poured a record-shattering &euro;120 billion into sustainable investment options, and in the UK alone, there&rsquo;s believed to be &pound;17 billion invested in ethical funds. And it&rsquo;s no longer just about Keep Cups and tote bags. In every sector, sustainability has become a focus &ndash; with more money, research and innovation being poured into these ventures across industries than ever before &ndash; sustainable investments have grown 107.4% annually since 2012.

<h3>Introducing the Alpha Programme</h3>
Startups may be the solution to global warming, but more help is needed. We need action over conversation. Innovation over thought-leadership. New ways over old habits.
Which is why we&rsquo;re proud to announce the <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/education/alpha" rel="follow" style="color: #236fa1;">2021 Alpha Programme</a> with an important theme: Sustainable Planet. This eighth edition of our 12-week accelerator will virtually bring together a cohort of purpose-driven, for profit organisations working on innovation and technology to encourage consumers and companies to improve the impact of their everyday living and operations.&nbsp;
The programme is open to startups with under-represented founding teams and each cohort will benefit from workshops and fireside chats with investors, pitch practice, demo day to 100+ investors, connections to relevant partners and bespoke guidance from the Huckletree Growth team. The programme will be delivered by world-class experts across the sustainability domain, from entrepreneurs to investors, to help turbocharge the new generation of impactful businesses in the UK and Ireland.&nbsp;

<h3>The Future of Sustainability&nbsp;</h3>
But what does 2021 hold for the sustainability sector? And what are some of the biggest trends emerging in the scene to watch for? I spoke to industry experts to discover the most important insights, trends and forecasts into sustainable investing and startups in the coming year.&nbsp;
One thing that stood out to me is that it&rsquo;s no longer a conversation on if a startup is going to be sustainable, but how they are going to be sustainable. Every business needs to put sustainability at the heart of their business operations if they want a bright future. Martin Rich, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Future-Fit Foundation, told me:
&ldquo;The most successful companies of the future will be those that embed true sustainability into every aspect of how they do business. This is no longer optional - environmental and societal pressures are real and you ignore them at your peril. Any business starting out today can - and must - bake this thinking into their DNA and build a resilient business from the ground up. Those who don&rsquo;t will fail.&rdquo; 
<h3></h3>
<h3>ESG Investment: A Sustainability Trend&nbsp;</h3>
In the wake of the Covid19 crisis, environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing will be gaining further momentum in 2021, as business goals align further with the world&rsquo;s most pressing societal issues. Investors are increasingly incorporating ESG values into their investment criteria &ndash; meaning businesses are being held to higher standards and scrutiny of their working practices.&nbsp;
Martin Rich argues it&rsquo;s no longer a choice between being a &lsquo;mainstream&rsquo; for-profit business or a &lsquo;social enterprise&rsquo;. In order to create a world in which people and planet can thrive, every business of any size must play its part in becoming environmentally restorative, socially just and economically inclusive.&nbsp;
Startups must answer this question:
&ldquo;How can I create system value &ndash; that has a positive impact on business, society and the environment - without locking harmful impacts into the process?&rdquo;
His advice is to look at both sides of the coin. Firstly, what is your purpose as a business? What is the solution you are trying to provide for the planet or society? What is unique about your offering? Secondly, identify the potential ESG risks in how you deliver your purpose. Are you relying on inherently unsustainable practices in order to achieve your &lsquo;positive&rsquo; outputs? Now put the two sides together: how can you radically change the game to achieve your purpose with reduced negative consequences?
Martin says that sustainability is more than badges and box-ticking, it&rsquo;s about changing the way you do business. Consumers are getting increasingly savvy about greenwashing &ndash; and aren&rsquo;t afraid to call out businesses who attempt to conceal the truth from their customers. It&rsquo;s about creating a system that works for both your business and the planet &ndash; one that is authentic, sustainable and impactful.&nbsp;

<h3>A World a Little Less Disposable&nbsp;</h3>
Olivia Ahn CEO of Planera, the UK&rsquo;s only certified flushable and biodegradable sanitary pads, believes that investing in sustainability is not just an investment for the planet and people, it&rsquo;s good business sense. She says:
&ldquo;With over 66% of global consumers who are willing to pay a premium for a sustainable product, there is ample opportunity for innovation across industries. When looking at the consumer product landscape, I see companies pushing the burden of sustainable disposal onto consumers causing guilt, confusion and frustration at the point of disposal. Product-facing companies need to make sustainable habits easier for their consumer, not harder.&rdquo;
For product-based businesses, making disposable products that are actually easy to dispose of is crucial. Disposable products should be convenient and sustainable &ndash; it&rsquo;s not necessarily about changing consumer habits, but making it easier for the consumer to be sustainable in the first place. Large legacy companies have huge operational structures, and often products, that are not inherently sustainable &ndash; with record-breaking global warming in 2020, we recognise that we must change to ensure that we do not destroy our only habitat in the universe.
Circularity is another exciting sustainability trend; whether it&rsquo;s upcycling furniture, selling second-hand clothes or sharing cars, the &lsquo;closed loop economy&rsquo; allows communities to share goods and spread the cost of consumption. Reusing, recycling and re-homing goods is another way startups can create positive impact for the planet with&nbsp; digital technology.&nbsp;

<h3>Going Beyond Clean Technology</h3>
Tim Boote, Founder of Protein Rebel, believes that investors are looking for innovations beyond clean technology. That, although clean technology, defined as technologies that reduce or optimize the use of natural resources, is one solution &ndash; it&rsquo;s not the only one. He says:
&ldquo;The environmental emergency is becoming increasingly urgent. The pandemic has highlighted the very real impact of the continued human encroachment into wild areas with zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 more likely. Finding solutions to this, as well as the climate crisis, means that startups addressing one or more of the <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals" style="color: #236fa1;">UN Sustainable Development Goals</a> are becoming increasingly attractive.&rdquo;
 As an emerging trend, we&rsquo;re seeing more and more food startups providing new types of sustainable proteins &ndash; as traditional meat and dairy proteins require huge amounts of food, water and land, contributing to rainforest destruction. With the UN forecasting that we will need to produce 70% more food by 2050 to feed the growing Global population, diets heavy in meat and dairy just aren&rsquo;t sustainable.&nbsp;
And whilst plant-based foods are having their moment, they are not the only solution &ndash; after all, plants still require large amounts of land, water and fertiliser. In fact, a whole new sustainable protein market is gaining traction and attention &ndash; the edible insect market &ndash; and investors must sit up and take notice. Once considered a gimmick, this market is now being taken seriously and is beginning to move from the fringes into the mainstream. In fact, the market is expected to grow by 26.5 per cent, reaching a market value of $4.63 billion worldwide by 2027.&nbsp;

If you&rsquo;re a sustainability startup looking for support in funding and your next stage of growth, you can find out more about Huckletree&rsquo;s 2021 Alpha Programme: Sustainable Planet <a href="https://www.huckletree.com/alpha" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a> and <a href="https://huckletree-asks.typeform.com/to/G9hTiq0f" style="color: #169179;">apply here</a>. Remember: what you create today has a ripple effect for years to come, so now is your chance to shine, create and inspire for the better.

How Sustainability is Supercharging the Startup Scene

<h2 style="text-align: center;">The fashion industry is ripe for change. By 2030, it&rsquo;s predicted that the waste it creates will hit 140 million tons. That&rsquo;s not the only thing that&rsquo;s hard to swallow &ndash; the pernicious shape wear trend shows no signs of slowing, either. Call it the Kardashian effect, call it cultural evolution, control is a reigning theme in many women&rsquo;s wardrobes &ndash; and one of our recent Future Future Academy grads has revolution in her sights.</h2>
<h4 style="text-align: center;"></h4>
<h4></h4>
<h3>Tackling fast fashion</h3>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/clare-lichfield-752b89aa?originalSubdomain=uk">Claire Lichfield </a>joined our Academy in lockdown 1.0, whilst working in the fashion business. As she learnt how to develop a product market fit for a COVID world, she shaped her vision for a fashion brand that would disrupt the status quo: sustainability, style and comfort.&nbsp;
Six months on, <a href="https://ensoilondon.com/">Ensoi London </a>is officially live &ndash; and you can get your hands on their fully self-sufficient pieces that blend luxury design with support. Restrictive spandex pants, stick on strapless nightmares and sewing yourself into a dress (yes, more than one Ensoi fan has admitted to doing this!) are now thankfully a thing of the past. Claire sums it up: &ldquo;No jabby underwires or shapewear &lsquo;solutions&rsquo; here, thank god. Because your body is not a problem to be solved.&rdquo;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/tCyahX2zTv6pXrQvRA0N" alt="undefined" width="1203" height="985" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />

<h3>Reducing waste</h3>
When you&rsquo;re building your own business, every single element is up for consideration. We&rsquo;re so inspired by Claire&rsquo;s commitment to make Ensoi fully size inclusive. Every single delicate slip and cami is made to order, made to fit and made to last.
Crucially, this also helps reduce the amount of waste created. This combines with a transparent supply chain, fairly paid workers and a dedication to making every single aspect of her business as sustainable as possible, right down to the last recycled nylon and elastane fibre. As the Ensoi story memorably signs off: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not perfect yet (who is?) but we don&rsquo;t believe in hiding anything. Except our bras.&rdquo;

<h3>Building a customer base</h3>
Despite lockdown restrictions and a general trend towards not buying new clothes (because no one will see them at home), Claire has managed to build an audience of devotees. Order slots drop monthly and she&rsquo;s seen an uplift in orders already:
&ldquo;The customers so far have been millennial women who are time poor. Ensoi takes the stress out of dressing, and reduces their dressing time considerably&hellip; The feedback so far has been brilliant. It&rsquo;s a high price point so people are taking their time, which is what we really encourage them to do so that they actually get use out of the garments. No impulse buys that make them feel like crap!&rdquo;
<h3>The future</h3>
So what&rsquo;s next for Claire and Ensoi in 2021? &ldquo;Raising the brand&rsquo;s profile and becoming the leader of the &lsquo;braless&rsquo; clothing category: stand alone clothing that provides the frictionless breast support that women deserve, without the need for a separate bra.&rdquo;
With features in March, April and May in British Vogue coming up too, the much-deserved hype around Ensoi London is just set to grow. Want to be next in (virtual) line? Look out for their third drop on 1st Feb.

<hr class="wp-block-separator" />
Inspired by Claire&rsquo;s journey? Lockdown has given many of us the catalyst to turn a well-thumbed dream into a real business. Times of flux test our resilience across the board, but they also bring out our innate creativity. That&rsquo;s where our virtual bootcamp,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huckletree.com/future-founder-academy" style="color: #236fa1;">Future Founder Academy</a>,&nbsp;comes in.

Meet the Startup Tackling Controlwear Culture

<h2 style="text-align: center;">The way we view work and navigate our careers has changed so much in the last twenty years. Long gone are &lsquo;jobs for life&rsquo; that our parents knew. Millennials and Gen-Zers are much less inclined to commit, with a PWC Report detailing that just 18% plan to stay in their current role for the long term. In short: most 20-somethings would tend to agree with Ms Ariana Grande with her sentiment, &lsquo;Thank you, next&rsquo;.&nbsp;</h2>

We live in a world where great company culture has become one of the most important qualities needed to attract new talent. But with the pandemic ushering in a new age of working from home, one question looms large. How can you create culture without in-person connections?
How exactly do we define &ldquo;culture&rdquo; in the context of the start-up ecosystem? For some companies, it&rsquo;s all about the social extracurriculars: lunchtime yoga, after-work drinks. For others, it&rsquo;s more about the add-on perks: upskilling budgets and tech allowances. One thing that most can agree on, however, is that it always involves building a strong community.&nbsp;
As we&rsquo;ve seen in<a href="https://huckletree-asks.typeform.com/to/ptLax5nv">The New Work Mindset Report</a>, there are lots of benefits to the working from home lifestyle (the commute has not been missed!). However, the one thing there isn&rsquo;t a substitute for is interacting with our team on a day to day basis. It&rsquo;s unsurprising to hear that 89% of the founders and startup talent surveyed missed their workmates. Whether you&rsquo;re an introvert or an extrovert, humans are hardwired to be social creatures; albeit to varying degrees. Never before in human history has there been such mass social isolation. So how are companies keeping their culture intact from a distance?

<h3>The reality</h3>
Well, the cold hard truth is that it has been extremely difficult. I don&rsquo;t think any number of Zoom meetings can replace the joy of an impromptu chat whilst&nbsp;grabbing a cheeky coffee, hashing out a creative idea or getting stuck in together to solve ad hoc problems. And it seems you agree, with 40% of you saying your relationship with your coworkers has got worse since lockdown began.&nbsp;
Could it be that although distance may make the heart grow fonder, it also causes our carefully cultivated connections to slowly degrade? Compartmentalising all our conversions through Zoom meetings results in everything becoming about business and leaves very little room for &lsquo;water cooler chats&rsquo;.&nbsp;
Turns out those casual conversations are more important than we ever thought. They allow us to connect on a real, human level. We&rsquo;re honest about our lives, families, stresses and wins, and feel that intangible magic that sparks when we actually see each other in the flesh.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<h3>Preserving community</h3>
Over to our Huckletree West members Butternut Box for inspiration. The PetTech pioneers set the bar high for socially distanced company hangouts from the start. With over ninety team members all working remotely, they had to get creative to match their famously fab in-person socials. This month, they sent out a selection of wines to everyone and got all sophisticated (and a little tipsy, maybe?) with an online tasting session.
As for Team Huckletree: we leaped into problem-solving mode when it came to maintaining our carefully nurtured team culture. For a physical-first business, the sudden switch to isolated working at home was a massive shift for many of our team, who were used to high energy, close working relationships cemented by casual coffee catch-ups and planned (and impromptu) drinks. Lockdown became an opportunity to improve the way we stay connected as a team operating multiple sites, across several cities, in two countries.&nbsp;
The first thing we did was implement weekly Slack Donuts, which randomly matched team members for a 20-minute chat, with the focus on getting to know each other outside of work. Marketing bonded with Ops, Tech bonded with Sales: it was an amazing way to stay connected despite distance.
Sadly, this year we were unable to take part in the raucous spectacle that is the Team Huckletree summer party &ndash; all we&rsquo;ll say is, we&rsquo;ll never forget summer 2019&rsquo;s disco bus. We&rsquo;re not the sort of bunch to let the party spirit die so easily (and like many, we needed a morale boost), so we took to our screens and instead hosted a virtual festival. The same mischievous energy was achieved and many laughs were had. However, cradling a diluted margarita in our pajamas wasn&rsquo;tquitethe same as flailing about to Tina Turner as we tore through the centre of London on a double-decker&hellip;&nbsp;
As Christmas party season begins, many teams are experiencing the same conundrum. The end of year celebration is a space to toast the many achievements, kiss off the epic fails and let off much-needed steam. It&rsquo;s the starting point for inter-departmental bonds that might never have started in the office, and the source of fond memories for the next 12 months alone.
Need inspiration for safe and festive celebrations? Team Huckletree is coming together virtually for live-streamed cooking classes with Pizza Pilgrims and a Ru Paul-rivalling lip-sync Zoom battle. In Manchester, Huckletree Ancoats members<a href="https://regital.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Regital</a>hosted a socially distant Secret Santa, gifting each other ethical socks from their fellow members,<a href="https://www.stand4socks.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Stand4Socks</a>. As for sexual wellness pioneers<a href="https://www.hanxofficial.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">HANX</a>? Rumour has it their festive virtual pub quiz theme was &lsquo;leather&rsquo;. We shouldn&rsquo;t be surprised&hellip;

<h3>The future of culture</h3>
While it&rsquo;s great to have remote options as additions to the social calendar, a bigger issue needs to be considered. Culture isn&rsquo;t just about killer after-work drinks or pizza parties. It&rsquo;s about fostering solid bonds among your team, so when the proverbial shit hits the fan, your team is ready and raring to go. You&rsquo;re far more likely to dive into the trenches with your crew when you genuinely like, respect and trust each other.
Right now, we&rsquo;re seeing our members raring to return to the workplace, reunite their teams and keep those bonds strong. Take our Huckletree West FoodTech pioneers,<a href="https://blog.huckletree.com/the-collective-story-thinking-outside-the-pot">The Collective UK</a>. Since returning to the office post-lockdown, they&rsquo;re operating on a rota system, giving up to 13 team members the opportunity to book to come into the office each day. It&rsquo;s just one way that businesses can re-establish that essential human connection, catch up with their workplace buddies, and get down to some much-missed face to face collaboration.
We&rsquo;re changing the way we operate, too. In response to feedback from founders who want to get their team back together on a flexible basis, we&rsquo;ve introduced a brand new option:<a href="https://www.huckletree.com/memberships" style="color: #236fa1;">Studio Day Passes</a>. They give teams access to a private space to get together safely for the day, get stuck into collaborative work and most importantly, reconnect.

<h3>A new revolution?</h3>
If you mine down to the heart of it, culture is really about a collective mindset, attitude, or way of experiencing the world. None of Team Huckletree could have predicted how vital our mission, Braver Together, would turn out to be in a tumultuous 2020. It&rsquo;s never felt more true than right now and it&rsquo;s remained true at every twist, turn and hurdle we&rsquo;ve all faced. It&rsquo;s been a uniting force, a battle cry for those of us who still feel so much sense of togetherness in a world that wants to tear us apart. It&rsquo;s informed every decision we&rsquo;ve made for our members and our team.&nbsp;
Nothing can truly replace connecting with your team in real life, on that we can all agree. However, lockdown has made us more mindful of our relationships as remote team members, how our culture is being put to the test and how it might evolve in a future where part-time working from home may become the norm. We shouldn&rsquo;t be worrying about replacing what we previously had but focusing on how we can develop safer, smarter ways to still come together. After all, innovating is what startups do best&hellip; and a company culture reboot will be no different.&nbsp;
<blockquote>

</blockquote>
<hr class="wp-block-separator" />
We surveyed over 200 founders, entrepreneurs and startup talent on their experience of the working from home experiment. Screenburn, loneliness and productivity: it&rsquo;s all there. Read&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree-asks.typeform.com/to/ptLax5nv" style="color: #236fa1;">The New Work Mindset Report here</a>.

How to Build Your Culture Virtually

<h2 style="text-align: center;">From Revolut to Stripe to Transferwise, FinTech may well be the coolest guy at the party right now. It&rsquo;s young, trendy and all anyone is talking about. But what about FinTech&rsquo;s lesser-known cousin, RegTech? Despite always being by FinTech&rsquo;s side, RegTech doesn&rsquo;t seem to weaken knees in quite the same way.&nbsp;</h2>
With several members shaping the future of the sector right here at Huckletree, I decided to dip my toe properly into the world of regulatory technology, starting with a virtual chat with Huckletree D2 member&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/margherita-maspero-44270b71?originalSubdomain=ie" style="color: #236fa1;">Margherita &lsquo;Maggie&rsquo; Maspero</a>, Marketing Manager of&nbsp;<a href="https://knowyourcustomer.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Know Your Customer</a>. Know Your Customer was founded in 2015 and specialises in providing digital onboarding solutions to financial institutions and regulated organisations. Essentially, if you&rsquo;re a bank or a FinTech, you are required by the financial regulator to check the identity of your customer, both if they&rsquo;re an individual but especially if it&rsquo;s a corporate entity or company. KYC provides the infrastructure and services to help you onboard that customer swiftly, safely and digitally.
So, the burning question &ndash; why has RegTech been denied its turn in the limelight?
&ldquo;I think it is perceived as boring by those not familiar with its implications. I was guilty of this myself before joining Know Your Customer. People need to consider the connection between RegTech and FinTech. Arguably, RegTech is the engine or backend infrastructure that enables the exciting, tech-driven innovations of FinTech. It&rsquo;s taking care of business away from the spotlight. Without RegTech, there could be no FinTech.&rdquo;
As Maggie delved into the hugely important work that Know Your Customer is doing, the vital role of this strand of innovation became much clearer: &ldquo;RegTech is firstly essential for anti-money laundering and making sure dirty money doesn&rsquo;t enter the financial system as much as possible. We are also trying to reduce the manual workloads for compliance teams and ultimately, we want to offer customers the user experience they want, deserve and have come to expect in many aspects of their lives.&rdquo;
So far, so logical. So why are we starting to hear more about this sector? Firstly, RegTech has gained a lot of momentum in recent years, especially in Ireland where there is a real hub for bold minds innovating in this arena. Maggie explains:
&ldquo;2020 has been a pivotal year for RegTech advancements. From a sector perspective, COVID-19 has been an incredible catalyst for digital transformation trends that had been in the making in financial services for a long time, especially in the area of customer onboarding. Our &lsquo;new normal&rsquo; has made remote digital processes a priority and RegTech solutions like ours a necessity. Now, if you can&rsquo;t onboard customers digitally or remotely, you can&rsquo;t onboard them at all.&rdquo;
That surge in reliance on RegTech is here to stay, with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/regtech-adoption-financial-services" style="color: #236fa1;">predictions that an increasing number of financial institutions</a>&nbsp;will decide the benefits (automation to avoid the very real likelihood of staff sickness or furlough/redundancies) will outweigh the barriers to adoption. Positive news for Maggie, the KYC team and the wider community, too.

<h3>LIFE IN LOCKDOWN</h3>
With Ireland in strict lockdown measures this year, I wanted an insider perspective on how the Know Your Customer team has stayed connected. Turns out, being a global company (their European headquarters is at Huckletree in Dublin with bases in Hong Kong and Singapore) has turned out to be a positive when it comes to navigating the almost-overnight&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree-asks.typeform.com/to/ptLax5nv" style="color: #236fa1;">working from home experiment</a>. Drawings on her learnings as part of a distributed and highly remote team, Maggie shared her top tips for teams adjusting to the current reality of work: &ldquo;Get your 1:1 facetime in. It&rsquo;s really important to have those 1:1 conversations with your camera on, not just emailing or having big group meetings where it&rsquo;s easy to switch off. The KYC Dublin team has a coffee morning every Friday at 11am for anyone to dial in. You need to work to maintain the human connection or you run the risk of becoming detached.&rdquo;
The risk of detachment is something that&rsquo;s been on most of our minds this year.&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree-asks.typeform.com/to/ptLax5nv">In our survey of 200 founders and startup talent</a>, 89% reported missing their work friends &ndash; myself included. Maggie also felt the strain of distance from her workmates and our community:
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s crazy how long it&rsquo;s been since mid-March. To be honest, it really hasn&rsquo;t been easy. I really miss the daily interactions with my colleagues and the team at Huckletree. That said, we are used to working with a distributed team on Slack and Zoom so it hasn&rsquo;t been as hard an adjustment as it may have been for others.&rdquo;


<h3>THE FUTURE IS REGTECH</h3>
Cultural commentators, grads thinking about their next steps and banks take note: RegTech is making moves and has no plans to slow down anytime soon. I asked Maggie for an industry insider&rsquo;s forecast on the sector&rsquo;s next steps:&nbsp; &ldquo;I might be biased but I think the future of RegTech looks bright. Even though it is quite a young space as financial institutions and regulators have only recently started embracing technology, the sector is growing really fast. The way I see it, we have now gone through the first wave of RegTech innovation but we are about to see a lot more growth in terms of sophistication and application.&nbsp;There will also be a lot more specialist technology being applied going forward. We already work with Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, API and Cloud. Traditionally, it has been the more forward-looking companies that have been embracing these types of technologies but I think as more and more companies realise the benefits and the impacts, we will see a massive acceleration.&rdquo; So, it certainly seems that RegTech won&rsquo;t be a behind-the-scenes star forever. Warming to the theme, Maggie gave me a taste of what&rsquo;s to come, including greater visibility for us as consumers:&nbsp;
&ldquo;I find it really interesting to see how in certain markets (definitely in Europe, more in Hong Kong and Singapore as well), how the regulators themselves are now increasingly embracing innovation. As regulators write their recommendations and increasingly make space for technology, this could act as a major catalyst for the RegTech sector. The hope is that this will result in a more secure and solid financial system for everybody.&nbsp;&nbsp; On a personal level, I&rsquo;m looking forward to seeing how RegTech can emulate the customer-centricity and attention that we are used to having with big tech companies such as Netflix or Spotify, in sectors like financial services. As consumers, we can really benefit from these advancements and RegTech can get us there. In general, I&rsquo;m also excited to see how technology enables the sector as a whole and what that means for young generations whether it be through investment platforms becoming more easily accessible or access to credit.&rdquo;
There you have it: I&rsquo;m officially fascinated by the world of RegTech &ndash; and you might just be too. If you want to learn more, you can check out Know Your Customer&rsquo;s new podcast RegTalks&nbsp;<a href="https://knowyourcustomer.com/regtalks/" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a>&nbsp;and next time you&rsquo;re at the party, maybe give RegTech the eyes. God knows you&rsquo;ll have stumbled upon a real hidden gem.&nbsp;

The Rise of RegTech in a Post-COVID World

<h2 style="text-align: center;">A study by EngineeringUK saw that young people have an increased interest in STEM careers post-pandemic. However, with only 18% of females considering themselves likely to pursue tech careers, historic gender disparities in aspiration may be accentuated. We need inspiring, engaging and welcoming tools to encourage more girls to get stuck into tech &ndash; and kittens might just be the answer.&nbsp;</h2>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://cdn.huckletree.com/web-uploads/2020/12/04152539/Caves2-1024x564.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-9021" srcset="https://cdn.huckletree.com/web-uploads/2020/12/04152539/Caves2-1024x564.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.huckletree.com/web-uploads/2020/12/04152539/Caves2-300x165.jpg 300w, https://cdn.huckletree.com/web-uploads/2020/12/04152539/Caves2-768x423.jpg 768w, https://cdn.huckletree.com/web-uploads/2020/12/04152539/Caves2.jpg 1440w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>

Yes, really. The cat has long been the Internet&rsquo;s favourite pet&trade;️, with fans waving the flag for felines all the way back in the 90s net. Kittens are culturally significant.&nbsp;<a href="https://eraseallkittens.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Erase All Kittens</a>&nbsp;cleverly takes a meme-able icon and combines it with a half unicorn, half mermaid &ldquo;Serial Entrepreneur Extraordinaire&rdquo;&nbsp; to create a bizarre, hilarious, adventure in coding.
Last year, CEO and Creative Director&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dee-saigal-3541b432/?originalSubdomain=uk" style="color: #236fa1;">Dee Saigal</a>&nbsp;was victorious in&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.huckletree.com/erase-all-kittens" style="color: #236fa1;">our Renegade Search</a>, garnering praise from our judging panel for being the first game to inspire girls to code whilst teaching professional coding skills. Determined to increase the numbers of girls entering STEM fields, Dee&rsquo;s goal is to inspire 10 million girls to code by 2025 &ndash; and the need is more important than ever in COVID-19 world.

<h3>Fundraising during a pandemic</h3>
Virtually every business on the planet has been impacted by lockdown. For Erase All Kittens however, it was a serendipitous case of right product, right time and right place &ndash; AKA completely virtual. As physical educational institutions closed their doors and homeschooling became the norm, Dee and the team saw their traction increase by an incredible 500%. Parents and caregivers desperate for an hour&rsquo;s peace to hop on a Zoom call or handle homebound school holidays turned to Erase All Kittens for a fun and importantly, productive solution.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/coronavirus-best-homework-apps-children-learn-language-a9418351.html">A namecheck in the Independent</a>&lsquo;s and&nbsp;<a href="https://news.vodafone.co.nz/10-websites-apps-to-inspire-kids-and-families-during-lockdown">Vodaphone&rsquo;s top apps</a>&nbsp;to keep kids occupied and learning cemented its status as a go-to lockdown tool. It wasn&rsquo;t just harried parents who saw the value in EAK, as Dee explains:&nbsp;
&ldquo;We were in the middle of fundraising at the time, and my initial thoughts were that it would be even harder to raise funds as it appeared as though all investors had stopped making investments. We received a lot of support from Google for Startups and The Conduit Connect, having raised &pound;100k from an angel investor they connected us to who recently set up a family office.&rdquo;
Further angel investment followed, including one of the co-founders of Shazam and a Director at Google. Right now, EAK are in the process of closing their full &pound;600k round with an Education Publishing House. Understandably, Dee&rsquo;s feeling pretty positive&hellip; &ldquo;We carried out a lot of R&amp;D to design and build EAK &ndash; it feels amazing not having to worry about funding for once! We also recently won a $100k grant from Grant for the Web and we&rsquo;re in the process of forming some very exciting distribution partnerships.&rdquo;
Going through the fundraising process right now? Dee shared her tips for fellow founders:
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d recommend making a list of all of the investors who are interested in the sector you&rsquo;re in, by researching the investors of similar products and seeing if there is anyone in your network who can make intros, using Linkedin.</li>
<li>Listen to feedback but don&rsquo;t feel that you need to take all of the advice offered (I used to do this), don&rsquo;t let &lsquo;no&rsquo;s&rsquo; discourage you, and make sure you follow up!</li>
<li>Do your own due diligence on investors who have told you that they want to invest &ndash; reach out to other startups in their portfolio to get an understanding of what your relationship will be like.&rdquo;</li>
</ul>

<h3>New hires and using tech for good</h3>
Alongside from sporadic appearances at Huckletree Soho, Team Erase All Kittens have taken the eight-month working from home experiment in their stride. Their solution? Embrace the tech &ndash; but be aware of its limitations:
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve maintained good communication by using Google Meet, Slack, and Trello, daily. In-person collaboration is definitely important as it makes it a bit easier to bounce ideas, make quick amendments, and it&rsquo;s much better for creating company culture which requires more effort when everyone&rsquo;s working remotely. I&rsquo;m really looking forward to being able to work together from Huckletree, and to celebrate our wins this year!&rdquo;
Alongside locking in funding, Dee added new kitten-builders to the team:
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve made five brilliant new hires in the past six months, including game developers and a marketing team. I&rsquo;m excited to be focusing on the game design and creative side of our business again and I love managing our team, alongside this.&rdquo;
Key to that focus shift was using lockdown to hone her talent tool kit.&nbsp;<a href="https://palife.co.uk/in-depth/more-than-60-of-the-nation-plan-self-improvement-during-the-lockdown/" style="color: #236fa1;">Like 60% of us</a>, Dee embarked on self-improvement, with the ultimate goal of benefiting the business and herself as a founder:
&ldquo;I learnt how to manage my time far better. I used to have a low-level feeling that I was never doing enough, and this, along with the struggles of fundraising, led to me making a few costly decisions. During lockdown, I ended up speaking more regularly with our advisors and to more investors &ndash; since all meetings were on Zoom. I&rsquo;m not sure if I learnt a new skill but I did learn about delegating more effectively, which freed up time so that my identity no longer felt completely tied to work.&rdquo;

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://cdn.huckletree.com/web-uploads/2020/12/07182554/Screenshot-2020-12-07-at-18.16.50-1-1024x508.png" alt="" class="wp-image-9031" srcset="https://cdn.huckletree.com/web-uploads/2020/12/07182554/Screenshot-2020-12-07-at-18.16.50-1-1024x508.png 1024w, https://cdn.huckletree.com/web-uploads/2020/12/07182554/Screenshot-2020-12-07-at-18.16.50-1-300x149.png 300w, https://cdn.huckletree.com/web-uploads/2020/12/07182554/Screenshot-2020-12-07-at-18.16.50-1-768x381.png 768w, https://cdn.huckletree.com/web-uploads/2020/12/07182554/Screenshot-2020-12-07-at-18.16.50-1.png 1396w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>

<h3>The future?</h3>
As the first-ever Renegade Champion, Dee and the team have been Entrepreneur in Residence at Huckletree Soho, where they&rsquo;ve become a firm favourite with both our team and our wider community of VCs and challenger brands. We&rsquo;re delighted to hear their plans for Erase All Kitten&rsquo;s post-pandemic work setup are very close to home:
&ldquo;We absolutely love Huckletree&rsquo;s bright plant-filled spaces, creative atmosphere, and most of all, the Huckletree community who have been a huge part of our journey. The past few months have been made infinitely better working from there, so we&rsquo;ve decided to stay on next year!&rdquo;
The forecast for 2021? More hard work and even more kittens&hellip; Over to you, Dee:
&ldquo;Our ambition is to bridge the huge gap between kids learning computational thinking and being able to create on the web, like a developer. We&rsquo;re working on a more educational and gamified version of EAK that will teach the languages of all websites and web apps, and inspire more girls to code. We&rsquo;re aiming for a soft beta launch for Christmas and we&rsquo;ll be releasing the full game in April next year, which will be sold to parents and schools. We&rsquo;ll continue to work in the way we&rsquo;ve been doing, and hopefully we&rsquo;ll be able to work together in person next month!&rdquo;
<hr class="wp-block-separator" />
2020 has been tough for early-stage businesses, and we want to help new founders get off to the right start in 2021. We&rsquo;re looking for the most exciting early-stage startup in Food and Beverage or Fashion and Media to join us as our Entrepreneur in Residence in London and Manchester.&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree-asks.typeform.com/to/Q1FXkLA5" style="color: #236fa1;">Apply now</a>.

The Startup That Grew By 500% in Lockdown

The Huckletree Christmas Gift Guide 2020

<h3 style="text-align: center;">If you are feeling increasingly exhausted, depleted of energy and despondent, you are not alone. Record rates of burnout are being reported in a year that has asked a lot of us as emotional beings. In our own State of the Nation report, 49% of startup founders and talent reported experiencing the debilitating symptoms whilst working from home. Collective trauma is spreading quickly, with headlines about Covid-19, Brexit, Black Lives Matter and the US election demanding too much of our headspace. Stress creates a lot of noise for our nervous system, and we experience brain fog and lack of clarity as a result.&nbsp;</h3>

As someone who has experienced and managed burnout several times, I am passionate about speaking out about its causes and what we can do to help each other get through difficult times with empathy and compassion. My most recent experience of burnout was earlier this month, when I had to do two weeks of restricted movement with my one year old son, as we were close contacts of a family relative who had caught Covid-19.&nbsp;
After a fortnight of limited sleep and late nights spent catching up on work I was left feeling completely exhausted, guilty and uninspired. Having to take care of my son and manage a business from the &ldquo;home office&rdquo; (my kitchen table) does not serve me well. As someone who craves variety, people and connection, I need boundaries between my home and work life and the buzz of the workspace to feel calm, connected and centred to my purpose.&nbsp; 

<h3>Emotional exhaustion</h3>

Recently, I listened to an<a href="https://brenebrown.com/unlockingus/">excellent podcast</a>on Brene Brown&rsquo;s Unlocking Us by Emily and Emilia Nagoski, who have also written a book on burnout and how to complete the stress cycle. According to the sisters, burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, decreased sense of accomplishment and depersonalisation of empathy and compassion.&nbsp;
Many of us may have experienced emotional exhaustion. It is defined as fatigue that comes from carrying too much for too long, and is strongly linked with our health. Did you know that every emotion causes a chemical reaction in our body? If we don&rsquo;t allow ourselves to feel an emotion and complete our stress cycle, chemical reactions can fester and build until we crash. Emotions have a beginning, middle and an end but we often cut them off as society demands us to suppress how we are feeling. Our moral obligation is to be happy and calm and generous to the needs of others.&nbsp;
When we are in a state of stress, our blood pressure goes up which has a knock on effect on our blood vessels. This is why stress is so often linked to heart disease. It&rsquo;s not only our cardiovascular system that is impacted, our nervous system, digestive system and endocrine systems are also severely impacted when adrenaline and cortisol build. According to the Nagoski sisters, exhaustion happens when we get stuck in an emotion. Movement is often the best way to feel and complete an emotion. If you&rsquo;re not a long distance runner, don&rsquo;t worry. Simply putting on your favourite song and dancing around your kitchen can work wonders.&nbsp;
When we feel emotionally drained and exhausted, we can have a decreased sense of accomplishment which can lead to a sense of futility and a feeling that nothing you do makes a difference. Creative expression is often recommended to help alleviate this &ndash; this can be through writing, painting, dancing, singing &hellip; anything that takes you out of your daily routine and gets other parts of your brain going. These activities are often the first to be parked when we are burned out so it makes sense that they help us reconnect with our purpose and inner joy.&nbsp;
The good news is that there are things we can build into our daily lives to help with burnout, and to avoid it happening in the first place. Please note that this is not a substitute for medical guidance or medication and regular visits to your GP are essential.
<h3> Tips to avoid and manage burnout</h3>

1. Avoid an overload of news and turn off your notifications. Being constantly exposed to negative situations, and existing in a state of continuous partial attention is detrimental to our health.
 2. Complete stress cycles by doing something that makes you feel happy and safe. For many people this is taking a walk in nature, or speaking to a close friend.&nbsp; 
3. Establish daily routines or rituals that help establish a moment of calm. Guided relaxation before bed can work wonders.&nbsp; 
4. If you have a very heavy workload, start the day by picking three things that you absolutely must get done that day. Park anything that is not top priority. Work smarter, not harder.&nbsp; 
5. Drink lots of water to stay hydrated and eat your lunch away from the laptop.&nbsp; 
6. Close your laptop during the evenings. If you have to work at night time, think about reducing screen time at least an hour before you go to bed. The blue light from our phones and laptops tricks our brain into thinking it&rsquo;s still daylight, which is why we find it so hard to switch off when we are lying in our beds.&nbsp;

Lastly, remember that you are not alone, and now more than ever is a time to be braver together.&nbsp;

We surveyed over 200 founders, entrepreneurs and startup talent on the almost-overnight move to working from home. Screenburn, loneliness and productivity: it&rsquo;s all there. Download The New Work Mindset Report&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree-asks.typeform.com/to/ptLax5nv">here</a>.

How To Avoid Feeling Locked Down and Burnt Out

<h2 style="text-align: center;">2020 has been a relationship resilience test. On 23 March 2020, almost literally overnight, our working relationships went entirely virtual, and our living relationships got pretty full-on. How do we navigate the new personal and the professional?</h2>

<h3>Living At Work</h3>
Like 30% of respondents to our first-ever&nbsp;<a href="http://we%20surveyed%20over%20200%20founders%2C%20entrepreneurs%20and%20startup%20talent%20on%20the%20almost-overnight%20move%20to%20working%20from%20home.%20screenburn%2C%20loneliness%20and%20productivity%20it%E2%80%99s%20all%20there.%20Download%20The%20New%20Work%20Mindset%20Report%20here.">State of the Nation: The New Work Mindset Report</a>, I live with housemates, and like 37% I also live with my partner. Confined to the walls of our tiny flat would we pass the lockdown test, or descend into the kind of hostility last seen on Big Brother Series 5?&nbsp;
This period was inevitably going to change our relationships with the people we live with. Our cohabitors went from being just a part of our multi-faceted, busy lives, to the ones we spend the majority of our waking hours with. I&rsquo;m very lucky that I live with some of my favourite people in the world. Our lives looked different in lockdown but we kept it fun &ndash; we made cocktails, played lots of cards, and my housemate would turn his room into a club on the weekends.&nbsp;
We navigated the lows together, kept each other smiling during a weird time and ended up closer than ever. And, I wasn&rsquo;t alone in becoming closer with the people I live with. 40% of those surveyed agree that their relationship with those they live with has improved. We&rsquo;re a lucky bunch.&nbsp;
But what happens now? Although restrictions started lifting in June, working from home has stood the test of time. For the vast majority of people surveyed (89%), their future will now include regular working from home. We&rsquo;re in it for the long-haul.&nbsp;
Working from home can produce some tricky relationship obstacles, especially in cities like London where we often live on top of each other. Have you ever presented on Zoom when your partner enters the room donned in only a towel? Had a difficult conversation when your Mum shouts at you to hang your washing up? Spoken with a client while your housemate makes a three-course lunch&hellip; loudly? These scenarios will have had many of us crying out for the office and our lovely, considerate colleagues.&nbsp;
Setting boundaries has become essential to keeping our relationship strong. A couple of months in and we know to communicate our schedules and needs ahead of time&hellip; and that the living room is a nudity-free zone.&nbsp;

<h3>Working From Home</h3>
More than just avoiding embarrassing Zoom situations, there&rsquo;s a huge amount to gain from close relationships with our colleagues. When you enter a workplace you&rsquo;re surrounded by people from different age groups and walks of life. People whose experience and perspectives you can learn from. Many of my closest friends I met at work and I couldn&rsquo;t imagine life without them. There&rsquo;s nothing better than a conversation over lunch with your work friends that leaves you cracking up at your desk for hours afterward.&nbsp;
Yet, something isn&rsquo;t connecting in the digital world of work. 40% of people we surveyed feel their relationship with colleagues has become worse since working from home during lockdown. Zoom, despite its efforts, hasn&rsquo;t quite lived up to the joy of IRL conversation. There&rsquo;s something about speaking to a screen that prevents you from bringing your authentic self. It can be transactional and unsatisfying at best, awkward, and unproductive at worst.

<h3>Where Do We Go From Here?</h3>
Let&rsquo;s use this opportunity to connect with our colleagues in a more meaningful way. Forget small talk at the start of meetings, we need to make the effort and schedule work-free conversation. Turn those cameras off, pick the telephone up, meet for walking breaks together, and ask the questions that matter. It&rsquo;s time for authenticity to make a come-back.&nbsp;
We know that we&rsquo;ll now be mixing working from home and the office as a minimum, so maybe the key to nurturing both our home and working relationships is acceptance? I&rsquo;ve never been annoyed by a colleague&rsquo;s dodgy wifi and I think we need to be easier on ourselves (and our housemates) about perfecting professionalism at home. From the other side of the screen, every toddler or cat that strides into a meeting helps me to see my colleagues in a new light. Getting a glimpse into the quirks of &lsquo;real-life&rsquo; outside work mode only has the potential to elevate our relationships. We should embrace it.&nbsp;

<div class="text">
We surveyed over 200 founders, entrepreneurs and startup talent on lockdown and the almost-overnight move to working from home. Screenburn, loneliness and productivity: it&rsquo;s all there. Download The New Work Mindset Report&nbsp;<a href="https://huckletree-asks.typeform.com/to/ptLax5nv">here</a>.
</div>

Is WFH The Real Relationship Resilience Test?

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Ever had an unnecessarily difficult experience in your working life and thought: &ldquo;This could be done so much better?&rdquo;&nbsp;</h2>
Welcome to the world of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lukerynnecullen.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank" style="color: #236fa1;">Luke Rynne Cullen</a>, the young Irish founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tunerelease.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank" style="color: #236fa1;">TuneRelease</a>, which defiantly launched in March 2020 in the teeth of the pandemic. It&rsquo;s the one-stop-shop for artists to pitch their music to the leading media outlets of the industry. It provides bands, solo performers and singer songwriters with an impressive media pitching platform, targeting international blogs, radio, playlists and podcasts tailored to suit their particular music.&nbsp;
 Music is a huge part of Ireland&rsquo;s culture and identity. We are a Tune Nation: so much of our lives and culture revolves around music, traditional and contemporary and we&rsquo;re proudly aware of the unique talent that is bred here. It&rsquo;s an integral part of our lives.. Like the music itself, our means of playing, presenting and enjoying is continuously evolving. But, for emerging musicians, the live gig is the lottery ticket and potential door to success.
Huckletree D2 member Luke has put his own background in music to good use, by setting up two pioneering side hustles and supporting them in their journey.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tunerelease.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank" style="color: #236fa1;">TuneRelease</a>&nbsp;helps artists release and promote new music, whilst&nbsp;<a href="https://www.applaud.pro/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank" style="color: #236fa1;">Applaud.live</a>&nbsp;helps streamline gig bookings for musicians. 

<h3>SO HOW DOES A 23 YEAR OLD CLASSICAL MUSICIAN WITH NO TECH BACKGROUND BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR?</h3>
No business degree or tech chops here&hellip; but an unconventional background often makes the best founders. Luke studied History and English Literature at Trinity College Dublin, just a stone&rsquo;s throw from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huckletree.com/locations/dublin-d2" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank" style="color: #236fa1;">The Academy &ndash; Huckletree&rsquo;s equally imposing Dublin home</a>, where he now works as Marketing and Communications lead for Scale Ireland. He was also a violinist with Trinity Orchestra &amp; its President during 2018/19. &ldquo;I handled the bookings for the orchestra including Electric Picnic, DropBox &amp; All Together Now, and later became the live music officer for Trinity Ents.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Back to that &lsquo;I could do this better&rsquo; moment. It was as a working musician that he found the inspiration to become an entrepreneur himself. Luke had been playing in a string quartet, mostly weddings and corporate events. Bookings, as most performers are only too well aware, are a verbal contract over the phone &ndash; and sometimes the envelope handed over after the gig can be a trifle light. After one such gig, Luke had the unenviable task of approaching the bridal party and had to gently inform them that the envelope had contained 200 Euro less than the agreed fee.&nbsp;
Being paid the agreed amount post-performance is something a musician shouldn&rsquo;t need to worry about. Determined never again to find himself in that cringe-making position, he set up Applaud, a platform where musicians could display their work online to prospective clients, apply to gigs with set fees, an agreed performance time, and a 10% deposit on booking. Musicians on the platform don&rsquo;t just show up and play &ndash; they&rsquo;re guaranteed to practice every day and perform at a professional level. With the support of Trinity&rsquo;s LaunchPad and LaunchBox programmes, Luke developed the platform, ultimately winning the TES Dragon&rsquo;s Den in 2018 (under the name Applaud Events).

<h3>IRISH INNOVATORS UNITE</h3>
Dublin is a place where homegrown talent is always rubbing shoulders with global names. We know all too well how important input from the innovation community can be. Luke reflects on one of the drivers of his platforms&rsquo; success:
&ldquo;Working with top class tech consultants, and with mentoring from&nbsp;<a href="https://scaleireland.org/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank" style="color: #236fa1;">Scale Ireland</a>, particularly Liz McCarthy and Martina Fitzgerald. I realised that as a first time founder and as someone who does not come from means, I was weak in both experience and network. That&rsquo;s one of the things I love about working at Huckletree &ndash;&nbsp; it&rsquo;s the ideal place for networking. The location is perfect for meetings, and there is a great community atmosphere that lends itself well to networking with a stellar cohort of other start-ups and scale-ups.&rdquo;

<h3>BRAVER TOGETHER</h3>
We&rsquo;re so inspired by how Luke faces every challenge past, present and future with open arms. He has incredible drive and ambition. As to where this comes from, Luke explains,
&ldquo;I do think a big part of it is related to having helped care for my sister Eva-Rose who was a Jack &amp; Jill child (children with severe neurological development issues). I think going through that experience put into perspective the value of life and that one should make the most of it while they can.&rdquo;
This determination radiates off Luke, who believes&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tunerelease.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank" style="color: #236fa1;">TuneRelease</a>&nbsp;can help all those musicians rise to meet that challenge of Covid:
&ldquo;There is so much music out there but live music has been annihilated. Without live venues, artists need a platform to display their music and more importantly reach the very people who can expand their audience base.&rdquo;
Working in the music industry has never been easy but, with the current pandemic, Irish artists are facing the most difficult time in the history of the industry. We&rsquo;re so inspired and hearted by Luke&rsquo;s efforts &ndash; TuneRelease is gaining traction because he and his team truly understands musicians&rsquo; needs right now. We can&rsquo;t wait for their 2021 encore&hellip;
 Find out more about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tunerelease.com/">TuneRelease</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://applaud.pro/" style="color: #236fa1;">Applaud</a>&nbsp;now.

TuneRelease: How We're Hacking the Music Industry

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Pride isn&rsquo;t just one month of the year. Transgender, gender fluid and non-binary people face misgendering, lack of awareness or support and often hostility in the workplace. We believe it&rsquo;s vital to champion and celebrate those voices within our community.</h2>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieran-o-shea-098a1696/?originalSubdomain=uk">Kieran</a>, Membership Manager at Huckletree Shoreditch, is a vocal champion for gender identity both in Team Huckletree, and their East London Hub. After their&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0fAJgjafe7alodU5HlCT70?si=S_fsx5yZQ76bjtcvqwEdpw">Stay Home Sounds non-binary beats takeover</a>&nbsp;sparked a wider conversation about pronouns in the workplace, I caught up with them to learn more about their identity, life at Huckletree and how we can all be better allies. Top tip: assumptions are cancelled.


How Do You Define Yourself?
<blockquote>
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m Pangender, meaning I see gender as a spectrum. My gender encompasses the entirety of the gender spectrum and I feel free to move in that spectrum at any one given time (non-static). I prefer &lsquo;he/she/they&rsquo; &ndash; if you&rsquo;re writing a letter to me, use Mx.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
<h3></h3>
Have You Felt Able To Share Your Pronouns At Huckletree? If So, What Made You Feel Comfortable To Do So?
<blockquote>
&ldquo;At Huckletree, I have met some of the most diverse people in my life. I have been a part of so many fantastic conversations that are pushing the boundaries of equality and breaking down cultural borders. I have felt comfortable to be completely open, and celebrate my gender identity. From the diverse events we host/affiliate with that tackle important topics including &ldquo;Women in Tech&rdquo;, &ldquo;Series Q&rdquo; and &ldquo;BAME in Games&rdquo;, I have felt space created for voices to be heard and taken seriously.&nbsp;
The diversity in our community hubs plays a huge role in being able to bring my whole self to work. Our members come from such different walks of life, different backgrounds, and different industries. I&rsquo;ve broken bread with sex health companies, Gov tech, developers, photographers, creatives and innovation corporates, all in the same room and what brings them together is their modern thinking and liberal mindset. Everyone is welcome at the table &ndash; only together we can move the cultural needle.&rdquo;
</blockquote>

Why Is It Important for Businesses To Create Environments Where Team Members' Pronouns Are Used Correctly, And Gender Identity Is Paramount To People Provisions?
<blockquote>
&ldquo;Businesses must write it into their constitution. Don&rsquo;t leave anything &lsquo;up in the air&rsquo; because what might be culturally obvious to a senior teammate might not be to another, and vice versa. These conversations trickle down AND bubble up. If you&rsquo;re not allowing your team to bring 100% of themselves to work, you&rsquo;re denying them their identity and also stunting their work.
For me to do my job well, I need to be&nbsp;me. My uniqueness is what makes me great, and you can&rsquo;t pick and choose what parts of me you want. &lsquo;I&rsquo; is the whole.
Don&rsquo;t ring-fence your culture by not including those people. Innovation and company resilience is born out of having diversity in the board meetings, the brainstorms and design sprints. Lastly, people don&rsquo;t do business with toxic masculinity.&rdquo;
</blockquote>

What's The One Piece Of Advice You'd Share With People Who Want To Support Their Team - Or Are Afraid They'll Get It Wrong/Offend Unintentionally? How Can We Be Better Allies?
<div class="text">
<blockquote>
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re reading this, which means you&rsquo;re on your way and I consider you an ally already. None of us gets it right all of the time and I think we all know there&rsquo;s a lot of work to be done across the board when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Here are my personal top tips for gender inclusion:
1) Talk to LGBTQ+ people around you and see what you can be doing to be more active in your allyship.&nbsp; 
2) Pick up a book and understand the thought behind the identity. It&rsquo;s up to you to know what the different gender identities mean &ndash; be woke, people.&nbsp; 
3) Let them be heard. Allow people to correct you and make them feel confident in doing so. I&rsquo;m never offended by sensible questions or offended when I know the person I&rsquo;m talking to welcomes that correction. That&rsquo;s how you become a true ally. 
4) If you don&rsquo;t know their pronouns,&nbsp;STOP ASSUMING. Call them &lsquo;they&rsquo; until they lend their pronoun/gender to you. I know some people might think this is a hard one, but it&rsquo;s not! The only reason you assume someone&rsquo;s gender is because of habit, and you just need to replace it with another. Trying is the first step! 
5) Get your HR in check. Allow people to write their pronouns down and get it on the record for everyone to refer to &ndash; and revise those legal docs to stop saying he/she. &ldquo;


</blockquote>
</div>

Pronouns, Gender & Why They Matter

<h2 style="text-align: center;">You&rsquo;ve got to learn to walk before you can run, right? Wrong. Sometimes you&rsquo;ve just got to jump head first into something you&rsquo;re passionate about&hellip; even in the midst of a global pandemic.</h2>
Just ask Huckletree Ancoats member and digital marketing maestro&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nedpoulter.com/" style="color: #236fa1;">Ned Poulter,</a>&nbsp;one of the brains behind the&nbsp;<a href="https://neverspoons.app/" style="color: #236fa1;">Neverspoons</a>&nbsp;app. He&rsquo;d tell you you don&rsquo;t need a detailed product strategy and killer marketing plan to launch a hit app.&nbsp; 
You&rsquo;ve probably read about the app&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53363826">on the BBC</a>, but for those of you who&rsquo;ve taken a sabbatical from reading the news the past few months (I don&rsquo;t blame you), I&rsquo;ll fill you in. Neverspoons shows you the nearest indie pubs to your local Wetherspoons, so you can make an informed decision to be a conscious consumer.&nbsp;
But the premise isn&rsquo;t so much about taking money from Tim Martin&rsquo;s pocket (although I think most of us can agree that&rsquo;s an excellent side effect). It&rsquo;s about giving independent businesses a leg up in tough times by giving the consumer the information they need to support them when they can.&nbsp;
Neverspoons launched on 27 June and it&rsquo;s had a pretty meteoric rise. After just two weeks on the app store, it hit 18,000 downloads. BBC News snapped up the story, as did the Independent and 5 Live. Fast forward two months, and Neverspoons has racked up 70,000 downloads on Android, with 5,000 people on the waiting list for iOS. Not a bad start&hellip;&nbsp;
But how do you actually get an app off the ground without a plan? Well here it is, a step-by-step guide to nailing a digital product and launch.


<h3>Step One: Pool Your Ideas</h3>
Work on Neverspoons began at the beginning of lockdown, when Ned approached Co-Founder and web developer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanemjones/">Shane Jones</a>&nbsp;with a craft beer business idea he&rsquo;d been sitting on for almost a decade. &ldquo;It was quite a developed back-of-a-fag-packet idea,&rdquo; he tells me, &ldquo;but up to that point I just hadn&rsquo;t got it over the line.&rdquo; As it turned out, Shane had just started working on the Neverspoons app, and they decided to make a go of it together.&nbsp;
There was one rather large problem, though. Neither Ned or Shane were app developers. I know&hellip; that sounds like a bit of an impasse when building an app to me, too.
&ldquo;My background is in digital marketing, although I&rsquo;ve never launched an app,&rdquo; Ned says, &ldquo;and it&rsquo;s been misquoted in interviews, but Shane is a web developer, not an app developer.&rdquo; The solution?&nbsp; Shane went about teaching himself app development. Simple! Err, maybe not.


<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/foZUrZaCSTWr3vBJ1XEU" alt="Untitled-design.png" width="576" height="411" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />



<h3>Step Two: Listen To Your Users</h3>
Ned and Shane didn&rsquo;t start out with a plan. They were two friends who liked pubs, beer and had semi-developed ideas around the two. &ldquo;It was just a bit of fun to begin with,&rdquo; Ned tells me.&nbsp;
But this lack of a plan was actually almost a plan in itself. Ned and Shane wanted to adopt an approach popularised in Eric Ries&rsquo; The Lean Startup.&nbsp;The idea is that you get the product to market really early, even if it&rsquo;s not ready (the current version of the app isn&rsquo;t even at 1.0 yet, it&rsquo;s still in beta.) Then you make yourself totally open to hearing user feedback, and decide where to go based on that.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been really open to listening to user suggestions,&rdquo; Ned says. When Neverspoons was released, the pubs were no more than a pin on the map. Then people started asking for more information, like whether their local indie boozer served food.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;Then we had more niche suggestions,&rdquo; Ned tells me, &ldquo;Someone asked if we could list the bars that served vegan food. That&rsquo;s a great idea, and when we&rsquo;ve got the data, we&rsquo;ll do that. Disability access is another one. A user contacted us and said one of the reasons they go to chains is they tend to have good disability access. So again, once we&rsquo;ve got the data, we&rsquo;ll have that sort of information on the app, too.&rdquo;


<h3>Step Three: Tap Into The Zeitgest</h3>
&ldquo;Neverspoons have never really had a marketing strategy,&rdquo; Ned says. Not something you expect to hear from a digital marketing professional. &ldquo;We launched it, and luckily enough we struck a chord at the right time. People understood what we were trying to do and felt an emotion about it, which is PR 101.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Thousands seized the opportunity to get behind local entrepreneurs and help keep their doors open. The result? Much of the app&rsquo;s promo was user-generated. Old school friends and teachers reached out to give them a virtual pat on the back. Echo and the Bunnymen followed them on Twitter (The Killing Moon never sounded so good). And, the big news outlets that covered the story reached out to Ned and Shane organically. They went viral, in a strictly non-pandemic sense.

<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/AokwliJT9a6EqWFqxhGJ" alt="undefined" width="500" height="357" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />

During the weekend the app was featured in the BBC headlines, Neverspoons had over 2,000 people using it in a 30 minute window. &ldquo;We honestly had no idea it would get this big. If we&rsquo;d had 1,000 downloads, Shane and I would have been high-fiving. To get 70 times that is bat shit crazy.&rdquo;&nbsp;

<div class="text">
So there you have it. A plan for not having a plan. Find a friend, be open to feedback, and strike a chord with popular consciousness.&nbsp;
Fancy a pint?&nbsp;<a href="https://neverspoons.app/">Download the Neverspoons app here</a>.
</div>

3 Steps to Building A Hit App in Lockdown

Dear friends,&nbsp;
Over the past week, we&rsquo;ve been made more aware than ever of the ongoing and deep-seated unequal treatment towards the Black community. Our friends in the Black community have been made to experience huge suffering, pain and fear caused by acts of violence and loss of life due to one thing and one thing only: the colour of their skin. Our friends, and friends we have not yet met, are hurting.&nbsp;

Last night, I was staring at the words &lsquo;Braver Together&rsquo;- words that form such a critical part of our mission and that underpin our values. To me, these words mean that we recognise the different values that each and every one of our personal stories bring. It means that we embrace and welcome everyone and that a diverse, representative community is the&nbsp;only&nbsp;community we want to be part of, or to have a hand in building. It also means that we need to stand up to the things that are uncomfortable and invisible &ndash; to break them in order to rebuild something better.

On paper, we run spaces for people to come together and work. You may read this and think it&rsquo;s not our place to have a point of view.&nbsp; But when I think of all the thousands of people who come through our hubs each day (or right now, virtually), the freedom of ideas exchanged, the connections and friendships made, and the progress we are trying to collectively build in various industries, I believe we cannot sit on our hands. Because if we turn our eye to grave injustices that impact members of our community, then what sort of community are we? What great innovative impact will we have on the world if not everyone has the chance to be invited into the room, to have a seat at the table or even afforded the opportunity to realise what they&rsquo;re made of? And what message would we be sending to our people, to our kids?

<blockquote>
As such, I want to state that Huckletree stands fully behind the Black Lives Matter movement.&nbsp;
</blockquote>
<h3 style="text-align: left;"></h3>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">We have a zero-tolerance policy on racism and discrimination within our team or our community. We recognise the importance of building inclusive spaces and that psychological safety is as important as physical safety. If you feel under threat in any way, our spaces can be a refuge and our teams will be trained to know how to support you. Our doors will be open to those who need us, whether members or not.&nbsp;</h4>

We are striving to build as diverse a team as possible, and whilst we aren&rsquo;t yet perfect, I&rsquo;m certainly proud of our efforts and the values that we embed into our recruitment process. This year 47% of our team have gone through Diversity and Inclusion programmes because we believe that we can all, always, do better in tearing down biases, celebrating diversity and being a truly inclusive workplace. More to do, more to come.&nbsp;
Lastly, through the efforts of our Alpha accelerator programme (which is only available to founders from diverse backgrounds and is 100% pro-bono) and our Fairer Funding campaign (which aims to embed equality for all founders in their attempts at raising capital), we&rsquo;re actively striving to build more representation and inclusivity into the wider startup ecosystem. We&rsquo;re also working towards building a truly diverse and representative ambassador community, and I&rsquo;m so proud of the wonderful group of ambassadors we&rsquo;ve welcomed into our fold to date.&nbsp;
This work can&rsquo;t slow down, if anything it needs to speed up.&nbsp;
All this said, we&rsquo;re equally conscious that these actions on their own are not enough, and so today we are reinforcing our commitment to the Black community to further use our community to promote diversity, equality and inclusion. These past few months have sadly reminded us that we need to be more hyper-aware and more proactive about the threats that are invisible, nuanced and swept under the carpet &ndash; not just those that are most visible.

Finally, to our members, ambassadors, entrepreneurs and friends in the Black community: we don&rsquo;t&nbsp;just&nbsp;see you. We celebrate you, and we advocate for you. And we will continue to strive to do better by you.&nbsp;
<blockquote>

</blockquote>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">Gaby Hersham&nbsp; Huckletree CEO and Co-Founder On behalf of Huckletree Co-Founders&nbsp; </h4>

<blockquote>
Founders: Please find below a list of actions that you can take to ensure that your business truly supports the Black Lives Matter movement, as suggested by our friend&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-okenla-b8040899/?originalSubdomain=uk" style="color: #236fa1;">Deborah Okenla</a>&nbsp;(CEO of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thisisysys.com/">YSYS</a>).
</blockquote>
<h4>People</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>Send an email to your team and advisory board with an overview of what has happened over the past few weeks and where your company stands with the Black Lives Matter movement.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Schedule 1:1 meetings with all members of your team (particularly those who are black) and check on their mental health and wellbeing, provide adequate care and support where necessary.&nbsp;</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>(<a href="https://kwanda.co/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">Kwanda</a>, a collection pot for black communities is raising a fund to to cover the costs of therapy for black individuals &ndash; you can donate&nbsp;<a href="https://kwanda.co/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a>)</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>If you are hiring during this period, actively post your open roles on black jobs board such as:&nbsp;<a href="https://byp-network.com/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">BYP</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pocitjobs.com/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">POCIT</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://talentdoor.jobboardfire.com/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">YSYS</a>.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Create a learning and development plan for your team, which involves education on anti-racism. This can include, workshops, courses, training and online events.&nbsp;</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>A great list of anti-racism resources for white people and parents can be found&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1BRlF2_zhNe86SGgHa6-VlBO-QgirITwCTugSfKie5Fs/mobilebasic?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter">here</a>.&nbsp;</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>

<h4>Contribute</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>Highlight activities members of your team can get involved in to show their support of Black Lives Matter, this can range from volunteering with black community groups to signing petitions.</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>Volunteer with a black community organisations, such as&nbsp;<a href="http://www.codersofcolour.org/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">Coders of Colour</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/homegirlsunite?lang=en&amp;utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">Home Girls Unite</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://elimuinternational.org/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">Elimu International</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.4frontproject.org/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter">4FrontProject.</a>&nbsp;(London-based).</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Donate to a bail out fund for protestors, such as:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">Reclaim the Block</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://atlsolidarity.org/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">Atlanta Solidarity Fund&nbsp;</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://brooklynbailfund.org/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">Brooklyn Community Bail Fund</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://knowyourrightscamp.com/legal?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">Know Your Rights Camp Legal Defense Initiative</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">and Community Bailout Fund</a>. As well as Belly Mujinga Go Fund Me&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/rip-belly-mujinga?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a>.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Join millions and sign George Floyd petitions&nbsp;<a href="https://www.beyonce.com/to-seek-justice-for-george-floyd/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a>.</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>

<h4>Policies</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>Put together or update your Anti-discrimination and Code of Ethics policy. You can find templates&nbsp;<a href="https://resources.workable.com/anti-discrimination-policy?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://resources.workable.com/professional-code-of-ethics-policy?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">here</a>.</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>

<h4>Brand</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>Share on social media where you stand with #BlackLivesMatter. Follow the example of:
<ul>
<li>Morgan DeBaun, Co-founders and CEO of Blavity&nbsp;<a href="https://blavity.com/blavity-original/we-are-fed-up-with-fighting-a-pandemic-amid-a-pandemic?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">post</a></li>
<li>Kike Oniwinde, Founder and CEO of BYP&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/KikeOniwinde/status/1266681691646631936?s=20&amp;utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">post</a></li>
<li>Sophia Amoruso, Founder of Girl Boss&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CAzA5qMHOHm/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=ig_web_copy_link" style="color: #236fa1;">post</a></li>
<li>Emily Weiss, Founder and CEO of Glossier&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CA1NROajK4_/?utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=ig_web_copy_link" style="color: #236fa1;">post</a></li>
<li>Stewart Butterfield, Co-founder and CEO of Slack&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/stewart/status/1266516172498968577?s=20&amp;utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">post</a></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Update your social media with the #BlackLivesMatter twitter banners and artwork, you can find some&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/zaynscandycane/status/1266291475068796929?s=20&amp;utm_campaign=F-Suite&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" style="color: #236fa1;">here.</a></blockquote>
</li>
</ul>

Huckletree Stands Behind Black Lives Matter

It&rsquo;s easy to be caught up in quotable facts and figures that are thrown around to argue this way or that. Just take a stroll through the latest headlines, and you&rsquo;d be hard pressed to find the blurred line between fact and overblown fiction. Too often, context is lost when we lean on secondhand survey stats. Context and background are so important when navigating the role of data in wider conversations.
At Huckletree, we&rsquo;ve seen headline-grabbing figures forewarning the dire state of funding, and we&rsquo;ve heard anecdotal stories from members across our London and Dublin community&hellip; but the question arose: what&rsquo;s the&nbsp;real&nbsp;state of play for founders in the UK and Ireland?
We decided it&rsquo;s high time to get real on entrepreneurs&rsquo; experiences of the fundraising process. We conducted our own research into if there are fair funding opportunities for founders regardless of age, gender and background.
We believe transparency is absolutely key for gaining real insights from the facts and figures used in our campaign video for Fairer Funding Now. So, strap in whilst we take you on a whirlwind non-stop tour of the state of funding&hellip;

&nbsp;
<h3 class="p1">THE REALITY FOR FEMALE FOUNDERS</h3>
<blockquote>
&ldquo;Only 15% of funding went to startups with a female founder in 2017&rdquo;
</blockquote>

This figure has been<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/16/its-2017-and-women-still-arent-being-funded-equally/" style="color: #3598db;">&nbsp;widely reported</a>, and to understand the collective experiences of our survey participants, we mirrored the quoted figure and asked: &ldquo;Do you think women have access to the same funding opportunities as men?&rdquo;. Only 10% of our female respondents answered &lsquo;Yes&rsquo; to the question.
This is a strong reflection of the current state of the funding environment. In the UK, almost a third of new businesses are founded by women and this number is heavily increasing year on year. On this basis, we should expect to see the percentage of funding going to startups with a female founder increase yearly, right? Nope. In fact, this number<a href="http://fortune.com/2018/01/31/female-founders-venture-capital-2017/" style="color: #f1c40f;">&nbsp;has steadily stagnated</a>.
The reasons for this are obviously hugely complex and multifaceted, a combination of fewer women founding startups and less investment going to the few who have. And it doesn&rsquo;t end there. A lot more can be said about startups like Huckletree West members Mush, who used alternate financing platform Crowdcube after early negative experiences in the venture capital world.

&nbsp;
<h3 class="p2">OPPORTUNITIES FOR BAME FOUNDERS</h3>
<blockquote>
&ldquo;Only 17% of black startup leaders think equal opportunities exist&rdquo;
</blockquote>

One of the more startling aspects of our survey was just how forlorn funding is perceived to be by black startup founders. When we asked they believed equal opportunities to secure investment existed, regardless of background, race, age or gender, just 17% of our survey thought so.
In contrast, 40% of non-black founders believed equal opportunities did exist, highlighting the depth of the discrepancy of opinion with a nearly 35% variance. This vast difference in individual experiences and perspectives on funding opportunities highlights the real imbalance at hand and a real representation of why we launched our campaign for Fairer Funding Now.

<h3 class="p1"> CALLING FOR CHANGE</h3>
Most of us already know that awareness is key; we need to be shouting from the rooftops about the current inadequacies and failings of investor networks, whilst simultaneously giving props and highlight success stories when they happen, like that of&nbsp;<a href="http://backstagecapital.com/crew/" style="color: #f1c40f;">Backstage Capital</a>.
Beneath all the statistics, the reality is&nbsp;would-be entrepreneurs who don&rsquo;t fit the typical stereotype often come up against challenging obstacles &ndash; and we cannot let that put them off entrepreneurship altogether.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s time for Fairer Funding Now &ndash; and we want you to join the campaign.
Bring your voice and share your experiences with the startup community as we debate the state of funding in the UK and Ireland on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huckletree.com/events/fairer-funding-now-how-do-we-make-funding-more-diverse-west-5b8f89383b8387ed5b8b4568" style="color: #f1c40f;">Tuesday 25th September</a>.

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