Serial Hatch graduate Tameeka Smith is the founder of Trimenco, a training, mentoring and coaching community interest company that runs personal development programmes, particularly aimed at neurodiverse adults.
Tameeka had not considered entrepreneurship as a path that was open to her before starting Trimenco, and has since completely shifted her mindset. After completing two Hatch Accelerators, and two Deep Dives, she now says: “I’ve taken away the barriers and the boundaries to growth and what I can do to earn a living.”
Founding Trimenco
It was personal experience that led to Tameeka founding Trimenco. She describes being “in a really dark place where I had led myself to believe that I was a failure and I couldn’t achieve what I wanted to achieve.
“I struggled massively. It really impacted on my mental health and wellbeing and the feelings of not being good enough, feelings of failure.”
Tameeka managed to find a way through this and overcame these barriers and limiting beliefs. Having been through that experience she became incredibly passionate about helping others in a similar situation, and sharing the tools and strategies that helped her.
It was this desire to help others, and the knowledge that she had something that could really make a difference, that led her to start Trimenco with co-founder Delrita Agyapong.
The Hatch Programmes
Tameeka originally joined a Hatch Accelerator programme because she knew she needed some support with her business, but didn’t know where to turn.
Joining the programme enabled her to get an overview of every area of the business with direct support from experts across the fields of marketing, finance, leadership and more.
After this initial taste of the Hatch experience, Tameeka went on to apply for every other programme she was eligible for, determined to access as much support as possible to allow her business to thrive.
This included two Deep Dive programmes, high level, tailored support around a specific area of business.
The Impact Business Growth Academy (IBGA) and Social Business Impact Programme (SBIP) were both focused around access to funding.
Tameeka was able to access funding through the programmes, as well as so many valuable takeaways.
Tameeka found both Deep Dives incredibly valuable as they made her look closely at every aspect of her business, and really scrutinise what was working and what needed to change.
“It’s almost like pulling the covers up or pulling the carpet up and saying ‘right, that needs to be cleaned up, that needs to be sorted out, that needs to be put over there, and that needs to be put over there’”.
Being Part of a Community
On top of the value of the learning itself, for Tameeka a huge highlight of joining the Hatch community has been joining a supportive network of like minded founders and experts.
“The reason it was so wonderful was the cohort of women that I was with, oh my gosh, so supportive, so inspiring. I learned so much from them.”
Tameeka is still in touch with the cohort she went through the very first programme with, several years ago. They support each other with their businesses, and one of the other founders even hosted Tameeka’s goddaughter as an intern at her organisation.
“Being an entrepreneur is a lonely place. So to be in that space with a group of such amazing and powerful women, I just felt that I was part of this really nice supportive club.”
Mindset Shift
From feeling like she faced barriers and limitations in her life, Tameeka has been through a total mindset shift.
“I know that I feel really confident as an entrepreneur. I feel that not only am I going to run this business, I’m going to go on to run a lot of businesses.
“For me, it’s all about creating opportunities and creating space for people to learn and grow and develop.”
In the past she had felt that there was no way out of the fixed narrative that is fed to so many of us about what our lives should look like. It felt inevitable, and the concept of having the freedom and flexibility to run her own business felt alien.
“But then you pivot. And what I’ve realised is that there’s so much opportunities available in this entrepreneurial space. Times are changing.”
A really special moment on her entrepreneurial journey was when Tameeka was invited to 10 Downing Street for an event celebrating female founders on International Women’s Day.
"It just brought everything full circle for me. I'm the granddaughter of immigrants that came to this country and my grandmother was a nurse. I cannot imagine their reaction if they knew that their granddaughter was literally standing shoulder to shoulder with the Prime Minister of the UK, you know, it would have been so far removed from their reality."
Tameeka is passionate about giving back, and wants to use all she has learned to help others break out of limiting beliefs and mindsets.
“For me now, what Hatch has done has really helped me develop a mindset of complete growth. No scarcity, just growing and scaling and developing and learning and moving forward.
“It’s the constant giving back. Because look what I’ve received from Hatch, I want to pay that forward. I really do. You know, it’s so important for me to just be in appreciation and in gratitude.”
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